SciFi Expo

Had a great time at SciFiExpo this weekend despite completely losing my voice after the first day. Thanks to everyone who came by the table.

Back to Work

Vacation OVER.

To celebrate the release of my first novel in both digital and print versions, I gave myself a little bit of time off. Sure, that’s the opposite of what you’re supposed to do when you release a book… you’re supposed to hit the ground running, doing marketing, guest posts, interviews, endless tweets, and general book-pimping. But all that stuff is bothersome.  

So I’ve just been lazy for a while. My wife and I are speeding through Naruto Shippuden on Hulu, and I’ve been eating lots of potato chips and French onion dip. Well, today begins a divided and re-doubled effort. So, like Naruto, I hope to master the art of the Shadow Clone Jutsu… ‘cause I’m probably going to need about three or four of me to get everything done.

This week I’ll be sending out Press Releases (yep… just now) and hope to set up some book signings at a few different locales. I’ve also begun putting together my experiences into a presentation regarding the road to self-publication and, specifically, the pros and cons of the Amazon KDP program. 

I’ve made a few harrying strikes at book 2, and it stands at about 5 or 6 chapters currently with a full outline on the side, but tonight begins the full-scale carpet-bombing, SEED strike team invading, flagship orbital striking, lemon-soaked paper-cutting, TPK’ing, all-out hissy-slapping attack that will drive me through the completion of the first draft. So if you see me anywhere (outside of work) and I’m not writing, feel free to give me an atomic wedgie, a purple-nurple, AND a wet-willie and tell me to get back to work. 

Truth be told, I haven’t been completely idle in the past few weeks. I’ve nearly completed the design for the 144: Champions of Hope strategy game board. I hope to post pictures of it here in a few weeks. I’ve been tweaking the rules to make the game a little more fast-paced and dynamic, and I hope to have a legitimate art plan put together by this summer.

Until then, buy my book, or if you already have, review it (the more stars the merrier), or tell your friends about it (works way better than any marketing I could do anyway), or shoot me a comment like, “Hey, keep it up. I’m looking forward to what’s next,” or “How’s work on book 2 coming? I can’t wait to read it,” or “Keep at it. Don’t get discouraged,” or “Does this look like a boil to you? It itches,” or “Here, I got you this replica Infinity Gauntlet just because I think you’re swell.”

Kindle Edition Now Available

The Kindle Edition of 144: Wrath is now available on Amazon.com. You can order your copy here.

The list price is 4.99... less than a a gallon bucket of ice cream. In fact, you could cozy up with the book AND eat a bucket of ice cream for less than a movie ticket for one.


The print edition will be available in a few weeks. I had some issues with the proof copy they sent me. So I'll have to address those through customer support before I'm ready for phase II.

And remember: if you like it, be sure to leave feedback!

About the Author

I’m in a strange place right now. I have to write an About the Author section, but I have absolutely no idea how to go about it. I’m finding that I just don’t know how to write about myself. It’s weird, too, because I love talking about myself. You would think it would be a simple matter of writing all those wonderful words down. No polyhedral dice.

I could write about all sorts of other people: my daughter, Napoleon Bonafrog, that guy who works at the copy shop and doesn’t know how to use a computer and almost formatted my flashdrive instead of opening it. Heck, I could even write a really great biography of my wife. It would go something like this:

Jenny was born, blah blah blah, met Dallas Caldwell, blah blah blah, married Dallas Caldwell, probably died in a starfighter mishap in 2062 because her contacts dried out.

See? That was easy. So why is it so difficult to sum up my life in a paragraph in such a way that people don’t think I’m a smarmy d-bag… without lying to them? I’m tempted to bet on the idea that no one actually reads the About the Author page and just throw in a string of garbled words, but even that would take effort to craft it in such a way that it looked purposefully chaotic. I can’t talk about High School Dallas who was into sports and Star Wars and making fun of people to make himself feel better about his own shortcomings. I can’t talk about the Dallas that spends inordinate amounts of time thinking about the combative superiority hierarchy (CSH) of Captain America, Captain Planet, Captain Kangaroo, and Captain Caveman (the top’s not who you’d think). And I definitely can’t talk about the Dallas with a birthmark below his right nipple that has completely disappeared in a sea of manly curls. 

Which, if you take those things out of the equation, leaves me with very little interesting fluff. And without fluff, my core shouldn’t really be about me. But then again, neither should my writing. I will never be a visionary evangelist like C.S. Lewis, but I hope that, like him, I can hide a little bit of truth in stories about swords and magic and unusual creatures. Fantasy, to me, is about faith in something greater and acceptance that we, the protagonists, are not the end-all, be-all of the universe, but that we can find significance through the opportunity we have to be part of a much bigger story.