The Warner Bros Writer's workshop ended for me this week. It was an incredible experience, and I strongly encourage aspiring teevee writers to apply. Here's the new website for the program. Hunt around and you can find a very goofy picture of me.

Expect more updates in the near future. I hope to have some news, and I'm going to be updating the Fiction section in the next week, so more of my work will be available online.

Currently reading: The Atrocity Archieves by Charles Stross.

A quick update ... There's a little chaos in my fiction section right now, due to Demolition shutting down their website. The mag was the home of "I Wish They Never Named Him Mad Dog" and "Plan C." I've thrown a quick version of "Plan C" on this site for now, but "Mad Dog" is going to be unfindable for a little while.

In good "Mad Dog" news, I'm at work on a new Mashburn story right now. I've finished a draft of my Supernatural spec, now titled "Rock is Dead" and hope to finish the story between drafts.

Currently reading: A  Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin and The Oxford History of Modern War.

A photo of a gas-station robber moments before he was gunned down by the cops. I wonder if he knew how much he looked like something out of a movie.

That cover kicks ass, huh? The new Thuglit anthlogy will feature my "Like Riding a Moped" along with stories by up-and-comers like Justin Porter and Jed Ayres. And of course heavy-hitters like Jason Starr and Allan Guthrie. This is the second of three confirmed Thuglit anthologies, and I'm proud to be the only writer to show up in all three. Another big thanks to Big Daddy Thug Todd Robinson.

When I know release dates and (I hope) the dates of a few readings, I'll let you know.

As the year closes I'm working on a new spec script for the Warner Bros. workshop, a Supernatural with the working title of "Stairway to Hell." After that, I plan to write at least one short story before I begin work on an orginal teevee script that I'll have done in March.

I just got my copy of Out of the Gutter in the mail, and haven't read anything in it yet, but it looks great.

To show you how backlogged I am right now, I'm going to share with you the title of everything I've got titles for right now that are in some stage of note-taking, outline form or draft. Some of these are no more that a paragraph in a notebook, one is forty-thousand words long. My New Year's resolution is to shrink the list, or at least have some different names on next year's list.

Lucy in the Pit

Cutter's Beach

Hollywood Trash

A Bushwhack at Hog-Scald Holler

The Scapegoat

Fastnight Crip

Poser

Supervillian

The Mother of Bandits

I Hear They Burn For Murder*

The Pickpocket

Midnight Down Pecker's Beach

The Accidental Torturer

Blight

*(Okay, all I have for that one is the title, but that title kicks fucking ass. Keep your mitts off it.)

The new Metallica video is a masterpiece of a alternate-history sci-fi Soviet-propaganda diesel-punk rotoscoped horror movie.

Still neck deep in the Warner Bros. Writers workshop, so just a quick update to say that Out of the Gutter #5, featuring my (now award-winning) story "Just Look What the Bitch Made You Do", is out now. It would make a swell Christmas gift for the degenerate in your life, perhaps doubled up with a copy of Hardcore Hardboiled?

Currently reading: The Lords of Chaos

My story "Just Look What the Bitch Made You Do" has won first place in the first-ever Revenge Fiction contest in Out of the Gutter (10-minute reads division). The stories were selected by crime-fiction heavyweights Victor Gischler and Anthony Neil Smith, so its an honor (and a free tee-shirt). Pre-order your copy of Issue Five of OOTG now.

In other news, I'm neck-deep in the Warner Bros. Television Writers Workshop, so my fiction is on hold at the moment. I'm currently polishing a screenplay based on my short story "Like Riding a Moped." I'm dying to start a new novel (tentatively titled Lucy in the Pit) and get back to Poser.

Currently Reading: Always Running by Luis J. Rodriguez and Imajica by Clive Barker (second time).

The murder ballad is an old concept, as are war poems and story songs. Today, hip hop has surpassed country music as the best and most interesting supplier of violent tales put to music. Some of my favorites are below.

Currently reading: Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk. 

"Shakey Dog" by Ghostface Killah (my all-time favorite)

"Walk Around" by Ghostface Killah

"Dance With the Devil" by Immortal Technique

"The Heist" by Big L

"Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" by Public Enemy

"Gold" by GZA

I've been busy with personal stuff like getting married, but a quick note: I've been accepted into the Warner Bros. Television Writers Workshop, a training program for television staff writers. I got in with a spec script for The Shield named "Initiation." More on the program a little later, but Google it.

The program should be taking up a lot of my time in the near future, but I'm going to try to crank out a little fiction before I get swamped.