This time next week I’ll be in Houston at Comicpalooza. I’m not sure if I will be getting a blog up that weekend or not, I guess what it will come down to is access to the net at my hotel.

Am I excited for the event? To be honest, no. I’m far more excited to be heading to Houston with my wife for the first time ever. We have been to several of the Northern States, such as Montana, Idaho and Washington, but that’s pretty much the extent of it.

We will be doing the tourist thing though after every day is done. Probably going to be quite tired by the time the expo is over, but what the hell.

Chris Van Deelen is the author of the Skirmisher Publishing LLC sourcebook Creatures of the Tropical Wastes sourcebook, co-author of its Wisdom from the Wastelands game supplement and contributor to the 'Sword of Kos: Hekaton' Anthology.

This time next week I’ll be in Houston at Comicpalooza. I’m not sure if I will be getting a blog up that weekend or not, I guess what it will come down to is access to the net at my hotel.

Am I excited for the event? To be honest, no. I’m far more excited to be heading to Houston with my wife for the first time ever. We have been to several of the Northern States, such as Montana, Idaho and Washington, but that’s pretty much the extent of it.

We will be doing the tourist thing though after every day is done. Probably going to be quite tired by the time the expo is over, but what the hell.

Will I be helping there? A few hours a day for sure. I’ll be manning the booth more than likely during the morning and then spending the latter half of the expo exploring or heading out with my wife.

So if perchance you wish to meet with me while I’m there, show up in the morning! Or at the very least let Michael Varhola or whoever is at the Skirmisher booth know you wish to meet up with me and I’ll make sure that I’m there.

I almost finished writing ‘Hunt’ during the week. My weekend has been so busy though doing things for my family and spending time with them that I have not had a chance to work on it the past two days.

Still the story is nearly 8000 words long, and is really different from the story that I set out to write. Originally it was to involve the Half-Orc Jarem hunting for a dangerous predator that was menacing the locals and killing off the animals that many were relying upon for sustenance. The result was that he was going to encounter it, discover that there were two predators and would have helped dispatch one. At the same time the predator that he helped would have turned out to have been a mother and was mortally wounded in the battle, and he would have brought the young back to the Monastery to raise.

Now it involves two new characters, a band of marauding Orcs, and a trio of predators. It’s funny just how much the story ended up changing.

Still that is the way my mind works.

Once the story is finished then I’ll get right to work on story number 5, ‘Hunger’. I’d like to say what this particular story is all about, but that would really spoil it and would also spoil one of the major plots in my upcoming novel ‘Sword of Kos: Dark Inheritance’.

That reminds me, once I’m down in Houston, unless I have reliable internet access, I will NOT be posting the daily conversions. That will end up being on hold until I return to Calgary.

If I do have good access however, I will continue to post each day. Probably in the morning, and if I have the access right at the booth, then I’ll take care of it while I’m manning it.

Some of you may be looking at the incredibly bizarre image that I am using for this weeks blog and shaking your head, wondering just what the hell happened to me and why I would post such a monstrosity.

Simple. Really simple. See, my full time job is delivery driver for a truck parts company. I won’t go into details but it is suffice to say that one important aspect is that I need to take my paperwork with me.

I forget on the rare occasion. I do mean rare, it’s typically maybe once every few weeks that I forget. This week I forgot and my co-worker Deb said that she was going to make a sign to put in my truck to remind me. I said fine, just make it pink Unicorns.

Of course I was being sarcastic.

But the image is the end result of me being sarcastic. And you know what? I have it in my truck, right where I can see it and every time I look at it, this reminder makes me laugh. It’s wrong on so many levels, but she took the time to make it up and I will keep it as long as I am with the company. It shows she cares and that she has a really wicked sense of humor.

I like that!

Many of you may already know that the most recent remake of Godzilla hit the theaters this week. My wife and I saw it yesterday. I will not give any spoilers, believe me so you can continue to read without fear of that sort of thing.

Effects were really well done, and if one was thinking about the death toll, that aspect was really quite gruesome. Still it was not quite what I had expected and I found that for some reason I was expecting more.

Still, don’t get me wrong, I liked it and will be looking forward to the inevitable sequel (hell it made 97 million on the opening weekend, so that pretty much locks in a sequel!)

As many of you know I’m also a voracious reader. Well, some of you will argue that listening to a book on audio is not reading, but I will disagree with you on that. If it wasn’t for audio, I’d barely be able to read anything at all, or I’d have to give up all the writing I do.

This week I finished off Rising Tides - book five of the Destroyermen series. I’ve mentioned this series several times and it is one of the few series that I absolutely love (such as The Lost Fleet and Harry Dresden series – which incidentally the latest novel Skin Trade comes out in the next two weeks!)

Being such an avid reader I am constantly in the bookstores looking for new books to pick up and go through. It keeps my imagination strong and as much of the work I do for Skirmisher shows, the reading I do also helps me create material for games.

Just look at my individual issues of Wisdom from the Wasteland series and you will see plenty of inspiration from novels, although the majority of the work comes from video games.

Anyhow I have seen a great deal of Steampunk novels for sale at the various stores I frequent. Now I’ve mentioned in previous blogs that I am NOT a fan of this genre. Not at all. The closest thing that I like that would be considered Steampunk is the Avatar: Last Air Bender and Legend of Korra series. Other than that, I really cannot stand the genre.

I don’t know why either. It has plenty of merits – but maybe it just comes down to the fact that I am NOT a fan of history, and that I don’t like low-tech. I’ve always been a fan of science fiction, first and foremost. Hell it took years before I could even pick up and read an urban fantasy novel. Even though I sort of like fantasy (I had better, I write enough of it!) I prefer science fiction.

Period.

I am just not into the whole Victorian age thing, and if I would be totally honest with myself and my readers, I REALLY don’t like the dress the women are typically portrayed in wearing during that era.

But one thing that I have really noticed when it comes to steampunk novels is the covers. Pretty much every single cover has the same four traits…. Goggles on the head of the characters, dirigibles in the background somewhere, top hats on the males, and women in the same Victorian era dresses.

Sorry, but yawn. Seriously people, can’t you come up with more enticing covers for your books? Then again the same traits can be used when it comes to most urban fantasy novels as well. Well, traits that fit that particular genre, such as the scantily clad woman in leathers or tight fitting outfits in provocative poses.

Hey, it’s just my opinion, and if you happen to love steampunk, then I really hope that the various novels out there meet your expectations. As I have stated numerous times in the past, what I say in this blog is my opinion and mine alone. If you disagree with it, so be it, we’re all individuals with our own likes and dislikes.

Anyhow, that’s it for this week and as always I would invite you to like my personal author page on Facebook and follow me on Twitter. The more followers I gain, the more often I will end up posting there.

Until next week, peace!