About the Author:

The second half of this post is a repeating of an entry I did before...this blog is as much about self-promotion (I've got to be honest!) as it is sharing with you my thoughts about one thing or t'other. Don't worry, you'll only be subjected to the following about my novel once in a while...so don't bitch about it, all right? ;)

Before that happens, though, a few things about myself...because it's about time for that as I'm trying to figure out the best way to embellish my 'About Me'.

My name is Charles Spencer, and I live in the American Midwest...specifically Missouri, part of our great breadbasket itself. I'm 39 years old as of this writing, which of course prompts mixed emotions about my next birthday. And for a very long time, I've wanted to express myself. I'm a writer and artist (line art and figure drawing), and I have a Bachelor of Arts-level education in both film and video production. I ultimately want to be a film director, but I'm more than a little wary of the way Hollywood works. (Money talks more than creative excellence there these days...how else to explain so many movies that aren't worth watching?) At this time, though, I'm simply an author with a creative bent toward fantasy and horror, and even mixing the two together...but I have needs to do much more than that.

And it isn't just to express myself. It isn't just because I want to leave at least a few things for everyone else to remember me by. First and last, I've got a lot running around in my head that's chomping at the bit to get out and quicken your heartrate, stir your soul, or if you're unlucky chill your blood.

The things in my head are in part a result of my being an unapologetic fan of the fantasy and horror I want to bring to you. I don't just love films, television and novels of those genres. (In case you're wondering my position on a particular moment in film, Han Solo shot first. If you disagree, you're invited to kiss my ass.) Outside of those genres, I have as much love for action films and period adventures from Hong Kong and Japan..."Hard Boiled" and "Azumi" are two of my eternal favorites, among many others. I get as much satisfaction from American Westerns, especially the classics, especially still with John 'The Duke' Wayne. I've read more than my fair share of American graphic novels, but I'm developing an adoration for Japanese manga and anime that never ceases to amaze. I've been and always will be a die-hard gamer, and I said 'amen' when Samuel L. Jackson declared, "All praises to the PlayStation!" As a result, I've also been opened up to a love that can only increase for the phenomenon known as cosplay, or costume play...and with luck, I'll show you why it can be a thing of true beauty sometime.

In short, my love of fantasy and horror and what's in between inspired me to bring what I love to others...to you, for now simply gentle readers, who I'd like one day with hope to be watchers of what I have to offer you.

But you ask, "Okay, he's a fanboy and maybe a nerd with a capital 'N'. What's his philosophy? What does he believe in?"

If you want to know my politics, understand I'm hesitant as Hell to touch on such things. I hate politics, which should tell you a lot, mostly because when politics enters the mix someone is liable to get pissed for no good reason if they feel differently about a subject I bring up, for instance the Second Amendment. I don't need that kind of nonsense, so if at all possible politics and anything subject to them won't be a part of this blog.

Unless I want to express any of the thousand reasons why I hate politics...in that case, make an allowance!

I do, however, believe in common sense. If you have a problem with that, you'll make me sad. Then I'll give you a nice hot cup of 'Shut The **** Up!' (And it'll be unedited, unlike now.)

What else is there? Well, I'm single. (Just a statement of fact, but I am looking.) And...that's about it for now.

Thanks for your attention...right now, we get to the part of this post where I tell you again about my first and most beloved child of my imagination: a bloody right hook of a novel titled, "HELL KNIGHT"....

TO YOU, THE GENTLE READER:

The setting of "HELL KNIGHT" is in the heart of a nation known by its citizens as God's Country. The United States of America. It is in the heart of this nation a secret war is about to explode between the mortal and the immortal...

At the core of the conflict is a warrior who will come from the shadows...from a realm of indescribable, unspeakable nightmares. A realm where only evil reigns. And she can make many things possible.

Her mission will be unknowable to the mortal world, but she will have mortals serve her. They will be her army...they will kill and die for her.

Her enemies are equally mysterious in their purpose, but they are monstrous. Vile beyond belief.

And they are legion.

This much the world will know...

By the sharp blades of her swords, she will make blood flow like a river.

But a detective in the heart of God's Country, haunted by her past, will become obsessed to understand the truth...understand why the bloody chaos is happening.

The truth will be beyond anything she can imagine.

It is a truth that threatens to change everything.

The truth will force a mortal detective to follow a relentless, ruthless warrior from another realm into the darkest of shadows.

Both will find an unexpected, shared destiny.

But in the end, only this warrior from another realm can do everything in her unworldly power to deny the change her enemies threaten to bring.

She will become the only hope for the mortal world...in spite of one extraordinary fact.

She came from Hell.

She is the Hell Knight.

GENTLE READER, TAKE WARNING:
"HELL KNIGHT" is for MATURE READERS ONLY.

This novel depicts extraordinary violence, mature language
and situations, and sexual content.

Want to know more?

In fact, would you like to know where you can read the first three chapters of this novel free online? You don't have to sign or log in to squat. All you have to do is go here at Yahoo! GeoCities...

http://www.geocities.com/hellknightnovel/index.html

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eBook: http://www.lulu.com/content/1067597

paperback: http://www.lulu.com/content/1044061

We've officially reached a new level of banality!

According to our ushers of culture -- those who decide what's newsworthy and what isn't -- someone making a silly face like the one above is news.

Of course, there have to be offensive racial connotations to it at the very least implied. And for Heaven's sakes, it involves one of our cultures most beloved figures of the moment, Miley "Hey, I'm a Disney-owned franchise!" Cyrus. If someone who wasn't famous made the face, we wouldn't even have seen the picture.

I'm sorry, but my common sense must make me proclaim this:

"Give me a damned break."

Three points of order, everyone.

1) First, doesn't Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana get enough exposure without having to worry about her pictures from private moments (Whoops! Excuse me, there is no such thing as 'privacy' for celebrities these days, according to those who decide what's newsworthy!) getting snatched and made the latest topic of discussion or debate?

2) Second, as far as being 'racially offensive', is she offending the human race somehow? I bring up the fact there are ethnicities, not races, dividing Humanity according to the Human Genome Project. My way of being clever, yet serious.

All right, point blank: this doesn't even enter the same offensive ballpark as "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and Mickey Rooney's 'yellow face'. Whoever in the blue Hell still calls that movie 'classic' when in fact it's boring, except for Audrey Hepburn looking fetching like she always did, needs to see more movies...even my mom, who adores Audrey, didn't like that film. Strange that a so-called artistic, liberal mecca like Hollywood has given the American public images that offend through the years, ever since "Birth of a Nation"...hypocrisy can truly travel a long way.

3) Again, in this day and age where politics rule...and I hate politics...it's demanded that we have to be so damned sensitive. We have to apologize for everything that even threatens to be offensive, or we're told by someone else that it is. Especially if someone of one ethnicity does something that might even on the outside chance offend those of another. In fact, don't those who decide what's news or not have to look for such things in our supposedly more enlightened times? The law was changed for the better long ago, and if any hearts and minds still haven't it's because those who call themselves parents aren't teaching the right things, if they're there for their kids at all to pass important lessons down. To pass down what's right. To have their kids do unto others as they'd have others do unto them, regardless of ethnicity, belief, or any other tertiary difference between us.

But I wouldn't count on those who tell us what's news to pass along anything that matters...they're too busy trying to find things that are offensive to get attention. Because in the end, the news like so many things in our society, is also a business. And attention-getting banality like Miley Cyrus making a dumb face makes them a profit if there are those dumb enough to stop, look and get offended.

Anybody remember when football was a sport?

Yes? No? Maybe-sorta?

Whatever your answer, I've looked at the big presentation known as Super Bowl Sunday with something of a critical eye. I'm not saying I don't like football. I'm not saying I don't like the Super Bowl. (Now that it's over and because I'm not trying to profit from it, just stating my opinion, I can say those two words!) I'm not a fanatic either, but I'm definitely not disliking anyone or anything about football and its most important contest between the best of the best.

But something's a little off with the whole thing when corporate advertisers take up as much time -- if not more -- promoting themselves during the big game. When those who watch have as much honest-to-God interest in those commercials. (They're just COMMERCIALS...they may be funny or slick, but they can't pretend to be anything more than that!) And last but not least, there's something strange about millions and millions of dollars being spent by those advertisers for 30 simple seconds of air time from the network...but at the same time, I'll bet they're planning on cutting jobs to keep themselves afloat, if they haven't already.

We did watch the Super Bowl for the sport once...we're still doing that now, but not so much.