Jack Daniels? Jack Daniel's? Ask an editor

I've been interviewed by the Young Roving Correspondent on the Bat Segundo show.

Let's watch as he keeps trying to corner me.

Dave Wins, one last time

So, the personal news I had to share is, I've agreed in principal to buy a co-op in Nutley NJ.

On my own.

All by myself.

Coolness.

A day late, but a very Jersey Christmas to you all!

PS: I may have some real cool personal news to report by the end of the week!

May Your Christmas be Legend-wait for it--dary!

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

SPOILERS TO FOLLOW, so beware:

I liked the first National Treasure movie. It was popcorn fun with silly American history trivia, cool real locations and good action. A good villain in Sean Bean, some good one-liners. When it's on TV (1 million times in a row on TBS) I'll usually watch part of it.

So last night I went to catch the sequel, hoping it'd be just as good mindless fun.

Yeah, not so much.

The best part about the first movie was a genuine sense of Nick Cage's character being on the run. People wanted to arrest him, people wanted to arrest him, people wanted to get what he was after.

This movie doesn't have that. It doesn't have a true villain. In fact, during all the ridiculous plots that Cage goes through (if you've seen the preview you know at one point he kidnaps the President.), everyone seems to give him the benefit of the doubt. "Hey, it's Ben Gates, you know he's doing it for a reason, but let's try to catch him anyway."

Meanwhile, Ed Harris plays a descendant of one of the conspirators to kill Abe Lincoln and tries to bring Gate's great great grandfather in on the conspiracy too. But you know what, no matter how many times Ed pulls a gun, a knife, knocks out a hero, or threatens someone, he's never really bad. And then he is. And then he isn't.

And the climax has about as much character motivation as a fifth grader's comic book ending.

Ultimately a disappointing movie.

But the Goofy cartoon before it was funny.

Things I Learned in 2007

--How to write a second book.

--How to start a third book and deal with complete frustration.

--That the PI is not dead.

--That a lot of people think that grammar is more important than meaning.

--The art of negotiation (more on this later, hopefully).

--That, yes, indeed Dave Wins.

--That debuting a novel is a ton of fun, but at the same time one of the most stressful things I've ever done.

--How to be charming. Okay, how to be even more charming.

--That no matter how charming I am some people just don't like me. Boo.

--What verisimilitude means. And that sometimes it shouldn't get in the way of a great story.

--That Duane Swierczynski, Ray Banks, Laura Lippman are still great writers.

--That Al Guthrie is a great writer and great agent.

--That talking about sales and advances are like talking about Fight Club.

--That everyone wants to know about sales and advances.

--Rediscovering my love of comic books. Yes, that sounds geeky, but come on, it ties into my love of storytelling. And the long game.

--How I Met Your Mother is a great show. Up there with The Sopranos, The Office, and Lost.

--Spider-man 3 is ultimately a disappointing movie, but still good enough to keep me entertained.

--That Killer Year 2007 was more than just a year. It was about making friends, and contacts. Great people.

We have to go back, Kate... WE HAVE TO GO BACK!

Continuing Awesomeness

What I'm Looking For...

Getting Better as a Writer

I did an interview yesterday.

And it got me thinking, how do you get better as a writer? Does it happen consciously? Or is it more subconscious? Do you not know you're getting better as you go along?

I consciously set out to make THE EVIL THAT MEN DO different from WOMD. It tells a story that is wider in scope, with more characters, more action, and more motivation. I think it's a good book. I don't know if it's better than WOMD. I don't know if I accomplished what I set out to do.

What makes a writer better? Is it the way you tell a story, a continued improvement on style? Better, deeper plots? Better deeper characters? Something original each time out?

ARRGGGGHHH.

How do you do it???

I believe the word is... more awesome

2007: Dave Wins

If you've ever looked at the tagline under my blog title, you'll see that's what it says.

And for the most part that was the truth.

2007 was one of those life defining years for me. I PUBLISHED A BOOK. My life long (as short as some people want that to seem) dream had come true. And it got good reviews. People LIKED it.

I wrote a second book... A SECOND BOOK. SOMETHING OVER 200 pages long came from my brain and fingers.

And yeah, there were some losses too. And all that made me realize is that I hate to lose.

My peronsal life was overall good.

So I have no year end lists. I can't really remember all the books I read (Severance Package, The Watchman, The Guilty, What the Dead Know... KIller year 2007 would all be on it)...

But here's the most important thing...

2007 has overall been the best year of my life. I can't deny that.

I hope 2008 gets better...

By the way, the official slogan by my slogan making friend Brian Witte, for 2008..

2008: Full Circle.

(I have no idea what that means... yet.)

Could it mean this?

I believe the word is awesome....

HIMYM Clip of the Week

Apprapos of nothing.

Here are the con pictures

SantaCon, a bar crawl through NYC....

dressed as Santa.




Santas gather on the PATH.



Santa Dave.



Pirate Santa.



Santas in NYC.



Santa Dave and an Elf.



And finally, a random Santa shatters millions of children's hopes and dreams.

Santa Con...

Pictures coming soon.

HO HO HO HO HO

Tomorrow....

I will be at this.

Experiments in the Classroom

I once watched a special on the sci-fi channel on Harlan Ellison, where he said at a book signing, he could write a short story as long as he had a first sentence. In the special, (it had to be the mid-90s) I believe Cris Carter of X-Files Fame was brought in to give the opening sentence. It was a tricky on and Harlan did crank out a short story.

I thought it would be cool to try this in the classroom with my students and see what different types of stories they and I came up with. So I gave them a sentence and I wrote a story as well. Unfortunately I forgot my story at school, otherwise I'd post it here now. At the same time, I think it'll give you guys a chance to give it a try in the comments.

And then maybe tomorrow I will post mine.

So here's the sentence:

"The swiss cheese collected dust on the floor as Stacy screamed."

PS:

Best Holiday Commercial:

So True...

Been here before

There are days like this, mama said.

I'm officially 24 days from my next deadline, the one I gave myself for the first fifty pages of the next book. And so far I have... 11 pages. And I'm not sure what to do next.

I have some really cool ideas for the next book, but most of them might occur you know, 30 or 40 pages down the road, and I can't get to them yet, so I'm stuck for my next scene. I know the theory is to just write it out of you. Just write and something will come, but there are days... man, there are days, where you just don't want to. Because it feels too much like work

You ever have those days?