Things That Go Bump 2014, #2: Vapor Interaction Observation Chamber (aka the Fogbox)

In keeping with my tradition of meddling with Things With Which Man Was Not Meant to Meddle, I've built a new ghost hunting tool. This new tool started out as the Vapor Interaction Observation Chamber, but from now on I'll be referring to it as the Fogbox.

Frank's neighbors express their approval of his paranormal endeavors.

That's exactly what a fogbox is -- a box full of fog. Why fog?

Because fog is a suspension of tiny water particles in air. Really tiny particles. Moving them around should be easy even if you're some sort of discorporeal energy entity (i.e., a ghost).

People I know and trust have told me they've been touched, had their hair pulled, felt cold little hands slip into theirs during paranormal investigations. Now, I've never experienced anything like that. A couple of years ago, I'd probably have dismissed their claims as imaginary or contrived. But then two things happened. One, I recorded my own EVP phenomena, which proved to me such events are neither always faked nor always imagined. Second, I got to know paranormal investigators who I trust. If they say they've had their hair pulled, they've had their hair pulled.

From their experiences, I can theorize that some agency (let's call it Agency X because I'm hesitant to use the g-word) is capable of infrequent, small-scale physical exertions on material objects. I don't know by what means Agency X exerts these forces, but let's assume they do.

My Fogbox is an effort to capture any small-scale physical effects photographically. Simply put, you fill the lighted chamber with fog. Then you wait for disturbances within the fog or upon the condensation on the inside pane of each of the chamber's sides.

Here's what the Fogbox looks like in action:

But let's back up a moment, and I'll describe its construction.

I took an 18 inch by 24 inch sheet of clear acrylic sheeting and cut it into two 12 by 18 sheets. I then separated these sheets with three-quarter inch pine stock. The top frame member is removable so the interior of each pane can be cleaned.

So what's all that tubing and the wires and the switch do?

The switch box controls two devices. One is the fan that sits atop the Fogbox. It draws artificial fog from the fog cylinder via the black hose and pumps the fog into the chamber.

The other powered item is the blue LED light strip that lines the sides and the bottom of the chamber. This serves two purposes -- one, to light the chamber, and make any motion or markings on the panes easily visible. Two, it looks really cool.

Fog usually occurs when the air temperature equals that of the dew point, but I'm a busy guy and I don't have time to go chasing fog around with my box so I make my own. You take one part pure glycerin to three parts distilled water. Mix well. Put that in a metal container and heat it. Draw off the resulting fog. Yes, it's harmless to breathe. I originally planned to use dry ice, but you can't get dry ice here in Oxford, so I had to drop back to the old Halloween glycerin-and-water recipe.

Here's what the Fogbox looks like with the fog not heated yet. The metal cylinder on the left, which looks suspiciously like an old coffee can, is an old coffee can in which a frame holds a small metal cup above four burning candles. The candles heat the mixture of water and glycerin. The fan and the tube draws this fog into the chamber.

Here's a shot of the Fogbox getting filled.

This is after about 10 minutes:

And here we are full of fog, and glowing!

A close up of the Chamber:

An even closer shot:

Total cost was about 30 bucks. I used an metal watch box as a switch box and the whole thing is powered by an old 12 volt wall transformer. The fan is a 12 volt PC fan of the 'squirrel cage' blower variety.

I just used what I had lying around; nothing about the parts or dimensions is special.

I think the Fogbox would be best used in a location known for high activity.

My hope is that one day a face will appear in a Fogbox and stick out its tongue before writing 867-5309 on the pane.

Markhat Release News

Brown River Queen will be released in print on Tuesday, March 4! So if you've been waiting for a print copy, your wait is nearly over. Of course the ebook version is available now. 

I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention that a new Markhat book, The Five Faces, will be released in ebook format on June 17. You can pre-order now, unless you want to make me cry. You don't want that, do you? Of course not.

Meralda and Mug Update

The new Meralda and Mug book, All the Turns of Light, is proceeding quickly. Is it possible I'll be complete or nearly so with the rough draft by the end of the month?

Yes it is. I don't want to jinx it by saying too much, but it could happen. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

That's it for this edition of Mad Science. I would like to wish a final farewell to Harold Ramis, who brought Dr. Egon Spengler to life and inspired me to do inadvisable things to common household items in the name of Science. 

Don't cross the streams, buddy. See you around.

Taciturn Ghosts and Markhat Release news!

Midway Cemetery, 2014

After capturing a loud EVP incident last week (listen to it here if you missed that blog entry), I returned to the same tiny cemetery yesterday, to see if anyone still felt like talking.

Armor-All the fearless armadillo was there, happily scooting about for tasty grubs. He was a bit more wary than before, though, and he waddled into the woods before I could get a good photo of him.

I spent 22 minutes among the headstones. I also took over a hundred photos, in case any of the spooks felt frisky. Of all those photos, I saw one unusual effect, which is show below:

See that squashed rainbow object at the lower right corner?

I've seen similar images touted as evidence of the paranormal. Sadly, I'm sure this is nothing but sloppy camera work.

Look how the shadows of the headstones fall. It's obvious the sun is off to the left of the image. Which means a ray of bright sunlight entered my lens and caused the prismatic rainbow effect, putting it opposite the bright light source. Nothing paranormal about this.

I did capture a single very faint sound that might be a voice. I'm on the fence about this one, because it is so faint. But listen for yourself (I put a link a few paragraphs below).

In the rear of the cemetery is a tall marble marker for a Mrs. Mollie Boone. I put my Zoom mic atop her marker and left it there for a while. Here's the mic atop the marker. Oh, and that fuzzy bit atop the microphone is a windscreen. 

The maybe-voice occurs around the ten minute mark on the full recording. I remark that the cemetery is peaceful, retrieve the mic, and walk away. As I am walking, I recorded a single very faint sound which sounds like a male saying 'hey.'

It's so faint I've amplified and looped it below:

Hey looped.

Like I said, I'm on the fence with this one. Could be a voice, could be a lot of other things, I suppose.

If you want to slog through the entire 22 minute recording, be my guest. The link is below.

Entire cemetery visit.

I have most of the components for a new ghost-hunting tool I've never seen built before. Hopefully next week I'll have photos of the completed device, or at least the smoking ruin of the prototype. Should be fun either way.

Meralda and Mug Update

Have I made progress on the new Mug and Meralda novel?

Yes. Yes I have. Fans of the first book, All the Paths of Shadow, will be happy to know that (gasp) Meralda and Mug have left the Royal Laboratory and indeed all of Tirlin. 

All the Paths of Shadow was written to be a sort of anti-quest fantasy novel. Look, I don't have anything at all against quest books. Loved The Lord of the Rings. Heck, I even enjoyed the Shannara books, when I was a kid. There's something innately exciting about a band of misfit adventurers slogging across the landscape in an effort to save the world.

But I'd seen so many quest novels. What about writing a protagonist who likes to sleep in her own bed, likes her morning coffee just so, and has no desire to drive across town, much less sleep in the mud?

That's Meralda. She just wants to be left alone, so she can do her research from morning till night. Of course that's not how her life is turning out, but if I was nice to my protagonists the books would be too boring to bother reading.

I'm trying another new thing with this book by including excerpts from Mug's private journal between chapters. Since this is his private journal, he's even more outspoken in these excerpts than he is in public. I'm waiting until the book is complete to see if these journal entries add or detract from the overall reading experience. So far I think they add a good bit of humor, and yes Mug can write using his vines to hold the pen.

I would post an excerpt here but there's no way I can do that without including half a dozen spoilers. 

I will say this book is a much faster-paced entry than All the Paths of Shadow. Sea monsters may be involved. And storms. And we may finally learn why the Vonats are so dead set against -- well, everything.

The Five Faces

Love this cover!

Good news! The Five Faces is now up for pre-order on Amazon. If you have a Kindle (or the free Kindle app), you can order your copy now and have it delivered to your device on June 17.

Pre-order The Five Faces on Amazon

I'm really excited about this book. I believe you'll like it too.

In case I have any readers new to the series, there are 8 Markhat titles for you to choose from. I'm often asked what order they are best read in, so here's what I suggest:

1) Dead Man's Rain

2) The Cadaver Client

3) The Mister Trophy

Note that it really doesn't matter what order you read the first three tales in. Any order is fine, really.

Dead Man's Rain is set in a haunted mansion. Markhat doesn't believe in haints, haunts, and bumps in the night, but he does believe in greedy relatives and he's not one to turn down a hefty fee. But Markhat soon learns that the horrors lurking in House Merlat might just be all too real. As Mama Hog observes, 'sometimes good and dead ain't good enough.'

The Cadaver Client finds Markhat in the hire of a remorseful ghost, who communicates with him through a little old lady who claims to speak to the dead. The ghost wants his living wife to have a sum of money, but it seems even the dead have more lies to tell than truth.

The Mister Trophy sets Markhat against the deranged head of one of Rannit's Dark Houses. Three mighty Troll warriors hire Markhat to find their cousin's head, which went missing during the War that almost wiped out humanity. Markhat finds the Troll head, but bringing it home to his clients may be a war in itself.

Those are the first three Markhat adventures. They are available only in ebook form individually, but if you prefer print books you can get the print anthology The Markhat Files, which contains all three!

The Markhat Files print anthology

I suggest reading the rest of the books in the order below. Note that each of the following books is available as an ebook or a printed book.

4) Hold the Dark

5) The Banshee's Walk

6) The Broken Bell

7) Brown River Queen

8) The Five Faces (available June 17, 2014)

Hold the Dark introduces new characters and conflicts, and sets a story arc that continues through The Banshee's Walk, The Broken Bell, Brown River Queen, and The Five Faces. 

The tone of the Markhat series is a little bit Raymond Chandler and a little bit Nero Wolfe. Markhat lives and works in a city called Rannit, which houses some 600,000 souls. Rannit isn't on Earth; I created a new world for the series, which they call simply 'the world.' 

Think 1930s Chicago, with vampires called halfdead holding most of the money and Ogres doing the heavy lifting. Rannites have ironworks, gas lamps, cannon, and gunpowder. Markhat is an Army vet who earns a living as a 'finder,' which is what we would call a private eye. If you've lost someone, or something, Markhat will search it out for you. For a price, of course. A man has to eat.

What Markhat mainly finds is trouble, of course. Bad trouble, because the bigger the problem, the better the book.

If you'd like to check out all my books, click below. You'll see covers and links to various purchasing options, because I'm A) helpful and B) avaricious. 

Frank's Books

That's the cover for Brown River Queen, which is set aboard a lavish gambling riverboat. The Queen's maiden voyage doesn't go entirely as planned...

MidSouthCon!

It's nearly March, and that can mean only one thing -- MidSouthCon!

This year's Con will be MidSouthCon32.  I love MidSouthCon -- it's large enough to attract some fascinating folks, and small enough to meet them.

For instance, here's the gang from Expedition Unknown, the Mid-South's premiere paranormal investigators. They have a website, and a YouTube channel featuring some of their best paranormal evidence. You should check out the YouTube channel -- the EVPs are fascinating.

And of course there are the cosplayers!

This year, Brown River Queen is up for a Darrell Award for best novel. I'm up against some stiff competition, so wish Markhat good luck!

I'm also being inducted into the Coger Hall of Fame, which is based on a body of work and not any single title. The judges cited my short stories and short story anthologies Saving the Sammi, Wistril Compleat, On the Road, The Far Corners, and Passing the Narrows as the basis for my induction, and I'm honored and very proud of being included in the Hall of Fame. 

So, if you're planning on being at MidSouthCon this year, look for me -- I'll be the guy grinning like a fool!

Things That Go Bump 2014, Issue #1: Mad Science, Ganzfeld Edition

Can you spot the armored mammal in this photo?

Welcome, boys and girls, to another edition of Things That Go Bump. 

I hadn't actually planned to offer another installment of my amateur supernatural sleuthing today, but a chance visit to a local cemetery resulted in the capture of what I consider to be my best EVP recording yet. I'm really excited about this recording, for a couple of reasons.

First, the vocalization is unique in that it extends over my own soft laughter. Which means it wasn't some weird unintentional grunt or burp, because I'm not a ventriloquist.

Next, it's pretty clear. Clear that it's a voice, and a voice not my own, and clear in what it seems to be saying.

Finally, because it was fairly loud. I didn't hear a thing at the time of recording. Nothing. But my good Zoom H1 mic caught it, and now you can hear it too!

First, a bit of backstory.

Karen and I drove up to the old Midway Cemetery in Lafayette County, Mississippi, after visiting my dad today. It's a sunny day, and warm compared to the weather of late, so we thought we'd go kick around up there for a bit. I took my new SL1000 camera and my trusty Zoom mic with windscreen.

We stayed at the graveyard for about 22 minutes. We weren't alone, though, as Karen, who had the camera, quickly discovered. This little fellow was there first.

Yes, that's an armadillo, and he got within about 3 inches of Karen's shoe before they became aware of each other.

Why is the image black and white? Because I'm going through my Ansel Adams phase and it was in B&W mode when I handed it to Karen. So that's my fault, not hers, but I love the pics anyway.

We watched the armadillo, whom Karen dubbed Armor-All, roam and root throughout the place, oblivious to our presence. I believe he might have been deaf.

They're actually cute, up close. I had no idea they had so much hair on their body armor.

We did switch to color, and here's what he looks like:

It was during our observations of the little guy that I captured the EVP.

The phenomena occurs at about 14:25 in on the full recording. I haven't said anything for several minutes. I'm standing alone, watching Karen take pics of Armor-All and chuckling aloud to myself because the critter was so cute and so unafraid. There was no conversation, no questions asked, no comments made by me.

I've isolated the EVP voice and my laugh in the short clip below. Please listen, and see what you think.

Midway EVP word

That sample has been amplified just a tad so you can listen without headphones. Here's the raw sample, unmodified:

Midway EVP Word, raw

Finally, here's the full 20-plus minute session, in case you care to listen. I didn't hear any other voices.

Full visit sound file

Let me reiterate -- I did not hear the voice until I listened to the recording. No one was close to me. I hear, quite clearly, a whispered or airy voice say the single word 'goodbye.' Which is apropos of nothing, as they say, since that doesn't fit into any conversational context at that time.

But it is a word, and it is a voice, and it came seemingly from thin air.

I have no explanation.

Weird Science: The Ganzfeld Effect

Way back in the 1930s, it was observed that placing goggles which presented a blank, uniform visual field to subjects resulted in hallucinations and changes to the brain's electrical activity. 

In the 1930s, this was considered rare good fun, so scientists ran with it. The phenomena came to be known as the Ganzfeld Effect (Ganzfeld is German for 'complete field'). After adding headphones playing white noise to the blank white visual field, test subjects reported seeing the kinds of things LSD enthusiasts would also report thirty years later.

The Ganzfeld Effect eventually came into play as a technique used by parapsychologists and ESP researchers. It was thought subjects undergoing a Ganzfeld environment showed increased psychic abilities. There are rumors the CIA tried using the Ganzfeld Effect in its own infamous remote-viewing experiments in the 1960s.

So. We have 30s-era mad scientists with their wild hair and side-buttoning lab coats in one corner. In the other, we have shadowy spy agency types glaring at grinning, tripping hippies.

Anything that attracts all these sorts has got to be fun, so count me in.

You can replicate the Ganzfeld Effect for yourself easily enough. Here's what you need:

1) A pack of ping-pong balls (two at least).

2) A razor knife.

3) 300 grit sandpaper.

4) Headphones, and a device to drive them.

5) A white noise source. I got a free white noise generator from iTunes, and played it on my phone.

6) A comfy chair.

7) A lamp.

Look at the picture below. Yes, I know it's painful, but look anyway. Covering my eyes are a pair of halved ping-pong balls. With a little work, you can trim them so that they fit over your eyes perfectly, rendering your entire visual field a blank white expanse.

That's where the razor knife and the sandpaper come in. Cut the balls to fit, then sand the edges smooth. The edges of the balls, not your eyes. Keep the sandpaper away from your eyes. 

Cut the ball in half. Trim each to fit your eye socket. Easy peasy. The CIA probably paid some government contractor half a million 1965 dollars just for that.

Load up your white noise, don your stylish and comfortable headphones, and put the Ganzfeld goggles over your eyes. Lay back. Face your lamp. Hit play.

And, according to the literature, prepare to be transported to an amazing new dimension of hallucinatory delight.

The Ganzfeld Effect is said to work because your brain, my brain, even the brain downstairs I keep alive in a jar is constantly looking for patterns in chaos. That's why we see faces in wood-grain doors, sometimes, or animals in clouds. 

So, by presenting your brain with a blank, uniform visual field via the eyes and random white noise via your ears, you set the stage for a kind of visual/auditory feedback loop, fueled by imagination and hallucinations. People report seeing loved ones, pastoral scenes, vivid colors, moving landscapes, you name it. The CIA even thought people might see inside naughty Russian missile bases, or sneaky submarines.

Look, if all it takes to hack my brain into being amusing for a change is a pair of ping-pong balls and a free white noise app, I say let's do this thing.

So do this thing I did, yesterday afternoon.

Below is the log of my experiences with the Ganzfeld Effect.

Ganzfeld Session 1
Saturday, February 15, 2014
1435 hours

White noise, 12 minutes. White light source.

Visual Hallucinations: None.
Auditory hallucinations: None.
General Impressions: Boring. The improvised 'goggles' worked well enough, in that they provided a uniform white visual field. The white noise generator paired with my good headphones was effective at blocking out all background noise. So I was presented with a blank white field of vision and my hearing was limited to pure white noise -- both of which were simply boring. At no point did I begin to 'see' anything but white. At no point did my surroundings fade or change. In a word, boring.
Mystical Impressions Received: I think this experiment would be a lot more fun if I replace the white noise with the Beatles and their Magical Mystery Tour album. But I won't, because this is Science.

Ganzfeld Session 2
Saturday, February 15, 2014
1517 hours

White noise, 12 minutes. White light source, rendered brighter than the source in Session 1 because I placed the lamp on my chest and aimed it at my face.

Visual Hallucinations: None.
Auditory hallucinations: None.
General Impressions: Seriously, were the people who reported visual hallucinations with this set-up enhancing their research with a little, shall we say, herb of the field? You know what I did gain a profound awareness of? I became profoundly aware that I was sitting in my chair with ping-pong balls over my eyes and a lamp on my chest. Now, this is hardly the strangest thing I've ever done, but in the other instances (yeah, especially the beach-balls and the ostrich) I could at least point towards an empty cooler and say 'beer.' This is just silly.
Mystical Impressions Received: After witnessing this display, my dogs are seriously considering appointing a new pack alpha.

Ganzfeld Session 3
Saturday, February 15, 2014
1601 hours

White noise, 12 minutes. White light source, rendered brighter than the source in Sessions 1 and 2 because I added an extra lamp to the rig.

Visual Hallucinations: None. What a shock.
Auditory Hallucinations: I believe I heard a voice from above spaketh the words 'Wow, what a wanker.'
General Impressions: See sessions 1 and 2. What a waste of time and white noise. I suppose it's possible that some people do experience visual hallucinations this way, but I'm obviously not one of them. I am annoyed, which probably isn't significant because I can achieve that mental state quite easily without sticking Mole Man goggles over my eyes.
Mystical Impressions Received: Ping-pong balls and loud static are NOT the gateway to another universe no matter what happened on that episode of Fringe.

Not a single Russian launch site did I view. I am very disappointed.

But at least I have some neat new goggles, suitable for Halloween or any formal occasion.

Mug and Meralda news

Work on the new book speeds along! I am now on page 59 of the new book. Not too shabby!

No, that's not the new book cover. It's the first book in the series, All the Paths of Shadow. Click the link! Leave a review! Buy a copy! Sorry. The brain in the jar downstairs needs a fresh supply of expensive nutrients.

Hey, how's this get in here? It's the cover for Brown River Queen.  A review? Please, guv'nor, it would mean ever so much to Tiny Tim...

And I'm out. 

Please, please comment on what you think the EVP voice said. I'm really stunned with this one.

By the way, not sure this is relevant, but I have a number of relatives buried there. People I knew well, and loved well. It's a peaceful place, with no spooky atmosphere that I can detect. 

Anyway, take care all!  See you next week!

White Skies at Night

It's full of stars...

Snows is akin to a teacher's pay raise, here in Mississippi, in that snows are few, far between, and tend to leave much to be desired in terms of actual measure. But when we left the Malco Theater late Friday night after seeing a block of films at the Oxford Film Festival, the sky was full of the stuff. The above is a photo I took, because yes, to Mississippi natives taking a picture of snow is deemed not only reasonable but mandatory.

The ground got a light covering too. I am pleased to report that the town didn't shut down, mainly because it happened at night and it would take a full-scale invasion by a foreign superpower to impede the Oxford Square bar traffic on a weekend. No, we Oxonians soldiered on, with nary a panicked run to the grocery store for milk and eggs. Although I suppose drink orders for White Russians may have seen a sudden uptick.

Markhat News

That's the new cover. Yeah, I know I did a reveal for it last weekend, but I like it, so here it is again.

I am pleased to report that the latest round of edits for the book above is complete. This round is known as the FLE, or First Line Edit. In this round, a sharp-eyed editor who has thus far not been involved in the back-and-forth edits between myself and the wise and all-seeing Editrix H reads the edited manuscript, looking for issues we may have missed. 

First Line Editors are chosen for their supernatural ability to spot continuity errors which may be separated by hundreds of pages, or even by books in a series. For instance, in the Markhat series, the phrase 'Angels and Devils' is a mild curse, usually spoken in anger or disgust. 

But did we use 'Angels and Devils' in Book 2, or did we drop the capitalization on Devils and use 'Angels and devils?'

The FLE knows, or knows to raise the question. That slipped right past me (the answer, by the way, is 'Angels and Devils.')

The good news is that the June publication date is firm now. The bulk (if not all) of the editing is done, the cover is set, and the book is ready to be converted into the various formats and distributed to booksellers around the world. Samhain handles all that. I just sit back and...I mean, I start immediately to work on the next book.

The Darker Carnival 

I am pleased to announce that the new Markhat adventure, The Darker Carnival, is done. First draft, that is. I'm pleased with it. So pleased that I've sent the book to my fearless beta reader for a round of first impressions.

Since you're a reader of my blog, I'll reveal a few things about the new book to you. As the title indicates, this entry is set in a carnival. 

What kind of carnival, you ask?

Well, on the surface, Markhat describes it thusly:

"Oh, it's wholesome, harmless diversion," I said. "A place where simple pleasures can be safely pursued by apple-cheeked children and their plain, homespun parents. Why, I wouldn't be surprised to learn the midway is manned by cherubs."

But of course that's Markhat being sarcastic, and while there might be winged things hiding along the midway of Dark's Diverse Delights they certainly aren't cherubs.

I really enjoyed writing The Darker Carnival. I will let it slip that this book brings major changes to the series, for all the characters, and while nothing will ever be quite the same again I hope the experience for you, the reader, will be improved.

But we'll have to wait and see. As usual, there's no guarantee The Darker Carnival will be picked up. Of course, if enough readers (wink wink) buy Markhat books, or drop the publisher quick little notes telling them how much you enjoy the series, that would certainly improve the odds.

Meralda and Mug news

Now that the The Five Faces is nearly ready for release and The Darker Carnival is a finished first draft, I'm turning my sights back to the sequel to All the Paths of Shadow. 

I have nearly fifteen thousand words of the new Mug and Meralda book down. It will be called All the Turns of Light, and I hope to have the first draft done before The Five Faces hits the stands in June. 

Phantoms or Foolery?

The Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles has a long history of macabre goings-on. It's linked to the Black Dahlia murder and just last year a missing tourist was found drowned in one of its rooftop water tanks. 

So if you took a shower or had a nice cool glass of refreshing water at the Cecil Hotel around that time, um, yeah. I wouldn't want to talk about it either.

On the plus side, it's slightly cheaper than the Bates Motel, and the snacks in the vending machines are usually fresh, or at least fresher than the corpses filling the water tanks. You can also probably drag a suspiciously lumpy roll of stained carpet out of the place without raising any eyebrows. That's just a tip from me to you.

A new photo has surfaced which shows what some call a ghostly image outside a fourth story window of the Cecil. Click below to read the story for yourself.

Window Ghost at the Cecil Hotel

I'm going to call this one a reflection phenomena, because it looks to me as if the photo was taken from inside a vehicle, and the 'ghost' is nothing more than a reflection of something on the dashboard. But that's just a guess.

Time for me to get back to work! Take care, all, and if you own a hotel please check your rooftop water tanks for corpses every now and then.

Still here? Quick, go read this!

Middle Earth as Seen From Space

Cover Reveal: The Five Faces

No more taunts, tricks, teases, or tortoises. The time has come to reveal the cover for The Five Faces, which will hit the shelves on June 16.

Here it is, Markhat revealed at last!

Artist Kanaxa gave us a masterpiece.

First, because it's beautiful. Beyond that, though, the cover is actually about the book. Once you've read it, you'll see what I mean. There are clues everywhere, but I'm not spilling any beans!

Of course any and all conjecture will be entertained, and I might divulge a few hints...

Hope you love the cover as much as I do. Thanks, Kanaxa!

I Ate What?

Today's post will be a smorgasbord, which is a polite way of saying 'a dog's breakfast.' Because I'm not feeling well. If my brain were a car engine, it would almost impossible to start, it would only run for a few minutes at a time, and it would quickly expire with a puff of exhaust and the shriek of wrenching metal.

My gastroenterologist rarely ever smiles.

But I haven't missed posting a Sunday blog since the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and I'm not about to let a minor flare-up of rigor mortis stop me now. So, if the gentleman in the hooded robe will lower his scythe for a moment and take a seat, we will proceed.

We'll wait. 

Fantastic Reads blog hop 

First of all, my writer pal Elsye Salpeter is part of a week-long blog hop, along with a number of other talented fantasy authors. Elyse's book The Hunt for Xanadu is featured, and it's a book I've read and recommend. 

Please click here to check out all the books. Which, by the way, are each priced at $3.99 or less this week!

Markhat update

This has not been the best writing weekend ever. I didn't reach my goal to finish the new Markhat book. On the bright side, I'm two or three solid writing sessions away from a finish, which means this week, barring disaster, will see the end to the first draft of The Darker Carnival.

One of the joys (there are only four, so it's a big deal) of being a writer is finding a box full of sleek print books on your porch. Such was the case Thursday, when the complementary print copies of Brown River Queen arrived from Samhain Publishing.

The print edition of Brown River Queen goes on sale everywhere on March 4. You could pre-order a copy now, if you wanted, wink wink nudge nudge.

Each hardcopy book comes complete with consonants, vowels, punctuation, pages, and sturdy covers. Batteries not required. Occupies three-dimensional space. Can be read in a vacuum, or during hyperspatial transport. Enjoy!

Things That Blow Up Real Good

Kids, don't try this at home. 

My new camera will record video at 480 frames per second. That's creeping into high-speed slow-motion territory, so naturally I had to try it out.

And what better phenomena to record than a small explosion?

The setup is simple. I took my butane torch, which is handy for removing fingerprints from corpses -- er, crafts, I mean crafts -- and lit it using the standard scratch-lighter. The process takes a fraction of a second, and is unremarkable to the naked eye.

Here's what it looks like in amateur slo-mo. Yes, the image is a little dark, because I wanted the sparks and flames to show up.

For all you Apple device folks, here's a link just for you!

Apple video link

Holding Hands documentary

I don't make movies, and if you watched the clip above you know why.

But my wife Karen does, and her latest project Holding Hands is marvelous. 

You've probably heard the admonition "“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." The quote is usually attributed to Plato, although it appears a Scottish author named Ian Maclaren is probably the true author.

Who first wrote the words isn't important. The author captured a universal truth, in that all the strangers we pass by every day bear a burden of one sort or another. No one is immune to tragedy or heartache, at least not for very long. 

Most of us muddle along as best we can. Karen's film is about a woman who faced adversity with rare courage and unyielding resolve. The film is less than 9 minutes long; please give it a look, and maybe remember the old adage. A kind word or even a smile to a stranger could be more important than you'll ever realize.

Holding Hands on Vimeo

My Super Bowl Prediction

Sorry this is posting so late. I'm sure quite a few people have placed wagers on the outcome of the Super Bowl, and I'm about to announce the winner and the final score. To anyone who loses money because they weren't able to follow my advice, I'm really sorry.

And the winner is: The Atlanta Braves, by a final score of 24-love. The game was close, early on, but toward the bottom of the 4th inning, the Braves shot 4 under par on the tenth and 11th holes, and the Celtics couldn't catch up. Great game, though! Lots of, er, ball-running, dribbling, skating, and so forth.

At Last, A Book Cover For The Five Faces

I've had my fun, dragging out the cover reveal. But now it's Friday, which means it's time to get serious, and stop posting nonsense.

An actual book cover is posted below. No more Rick Astley videos, no more hands, no more close-ups of suspenders.

So here he is, Markhat, in the flesh....

No, wait, that's not it. But, note to self -- need more hand lotion.

I don't often pose with book covers, but when I do, I pose with this one.

Don't even ask.

Okay, enough procrastination. Drumroll, please!

Wait for it....

Wait for it...

ta-DAA!!

It's a masterpiece, is it not? Although frankly Markhat seems to have let himself go a bit...

I said *a* book cover, not *the* book cover...

Cover Mea Culpa.

Yesterday, I did a bad thing.

I described a beautiful the new book cover and taunted you with the news that Markhat's face would be revealed at last.

Then, where the full cover image should have gone, I posted a cropped version, which only showed Markhat's hand.

Exhibit A.

That wasn't very nice of me, and I apologize.

So now I come before you, humble and filled with a spirit of contrite repentance. Making people wait until Sunday to see Markhat's manly mug is mean.

My plan was to post a portion of the cover each day, right up until Sunday. Today, for instance, I planned on posting the image below:

The suspender of Markhat! Hey, even finders need to keep their pants up around their waist.

But I've seen the error of my ways. I admit I was wrong, and I hope this means we're friends again.

Click here for full image

Revealed at Last: The Face of Markhat

Back in the primordial mists of pre-history (June of 2008), a finder named Markhat made his debut on Amazon with the release of Dead Man's Rain.

I wasn't sure what readers would make of Markhat. I took the heart and soul of a 1940s private eye and plopped him down in Rannit, a bustling city of humans and Ogres by day and a hunting ground for thirsty halfdead by night. Magic works in Markhat's world. Banshees walk the empty streets.The dead don't always rest. As Markhat's friend Mama Hog observes, sometimes even good and dead isn't good enough.

The response to the first Markhat book was good, so along came two more Markhat adventures.

The Cadaver Client finds Markhat working for a guilt-ridden shade. As Markhat soon learns, the dead can be just as treacherous as the living.

In The Mister Trophy, Markhat is hired by a trio of Trolls. The Trolls want the head of their dead cousin back -- but a mad vampire keeps the stuffed Troll head as a trophy, and he'd rather die than part with his possessions.

All three of these titles were then combined in the print anthology The Markhat Files, shown below.

If you've kept an eye on the book covers, you noticed a running theme. We see Markhat, but his fedora always covers his eyes.

This theme continues for the next four books.

Hold the Dark

The Banshee's Walk

The Broken Bell

Still no face! We see Darla on the cover of Brown River Queen, and we almost see Markhat, but the clever devil maintains his air of mystery by stepping in front of a light source at the last moment, hiding his face once again in shadow.

A new Markhat book will be released in June of this year. Entitled The Five Faces, the latest Markhat book cover is done, and I've seen it, and it is gorgeous. Artist KaNaXa, who also created the stunning cover for Brown River Queen, has done two things -- first, she's made what I believe to be the best cover yet for the series. That's high praise, because all the Markhat covers have been amazing.

Second, KaNaXa shows us Markhat's face for the very first time.

No hiding behind the hat. No lurking inside convenient shadows. No peeking around a corner. You get Markhat, standing tall and plain, right there looking back at you.

Every detail is perfect, right down to his clothes. He's wearing the good coat Darla got him for Yule and the black hat he favors when he knows he's heading for trouble. And heading for trouble he is. The Five Faces is no lighthearted romp. 

This new book will mark the eighth title in the series. I've spent a lot of time in Markhat's head, a lot of time seeing out of his eyes. So I have a pretty good idea what the guy should look like.

KaNaXa nailed it. I'm so in love with this new cover it should probably file a restraining order. I believe you're going to love it too!

I'm looking at the new cover right this very moment. All I have to do is upload the image into Blogger so it will appear below. But gosh, all this technical stuff is so confusing! What does 'crop' mean? 'Select?' I hope I don't accidentally post mere portions of the new cover until I finally get it right in Sunday's blog post. That would be terrible.

Maybe it will work. So, without further adieu, I give you this -- Markhat, revealed at last!

Isn't this image supposed to be bigger?

Bwahahaha....

More later!

All of Frank's books, with links to booksellers