Lincoln Crisler

As far as I’m concerned, there’s a special place in Hell for anyone who doesn’t find themselves tapping their toes to at least one song from Rush‘s 40-year career. For me, it’s a little more personal; I’ve written an essay that touched on it (for my shelved-for-now collection of nonfic), and I don’t remember if it’s seen the light of day yet, but suffice it to say that New Rush = Ecstatic Lincoln. So to have new singles, a new tour, an upcoming album AND a documentary all coming out in a short period of time? I damn near can’t control myself.

Here’s the setlist for the Time Machine Tour, which includes new material and -for the first time ever- Moving Pictures played live in its entirety. And if that’s not enough, here’s an hour-long interview Geddy and Alex did with Jeff Woods.

And if you’re going to be in Atlanta for the Time Machine Tour? Drop me a line…I’ll be there with bells on.

I’ve been throwing it around on Facebook for the past couple of weeks, but I finally busted out the plastic and bought my ticket, so now it’s official: I will be at Horrorfind 2010, in Gettysburg, PA from September 3-5.

Here’s the schedule of events with regards to horror authors. If you’d like to see me (without scouring the hotel bar and hoping I’m sober enough to remember who I am and how to talk), take special note of the Black Bed Sheet Books Meet and Greet from 5:30-7:00PM on Saturday. I’ll be participating in whatever goings on that entails, which I’m sure will include opening my mouth once or twice and signing books. I’d love to meet you, as long as you’re not a stalker and don’t want to have my babies!

For those of you who can’t make it, I’ll have pictures and video, and probably links to everyone else’s footage as well. If it’s a little piece of me you’re looking for, I do have signed copies of my books available here.

I did one of these last time I moved, three years ago (wow! My blog has history! FTW!) and it died a soft, quiet death a year or so ago. I baleeted the poor, sad creature because I didn’t agree with some of the comments I’d made anymore, to such an extent that I simply didn’t want written record of it, or for someone to stumble across it and figure I was still that guy. I moved my family to El Paso, Texas as pregnant with cynicism as my wife was with our son, and while I still didn’t much like the place when I left it, I have to say everything went well, all things considered, and I have more things to be thankful for in the last three years than I would have imagined.

I’ve added a child to my family, been promoted twice, tacked another sixty or so credits onto the degree I expect to finish early next year, gotten two books published, written a third, made some damn good friends and left El Paso on my own terms. My wife finished her undergraduate degree and began her graduate studies, and my oldest daughter transformed from pre-teen to upcoming high school sophomore, and I’ve watched my son grow from a baby bump to a wild, crazy beast with a great sense of comedic timing. My youngest daughter is finally going to visit me in my home for the first time in three years. I can’t really complain, now can I?

I wasn’t apprehensive about this move at all, unlike my last, forced, relocation. I’ve known it was coming since the end of last year, initiated the process myself, even, and I think it’s been spotlit by a ray of hope the whole time. Instead of diving face first into a part of the Army I didn’t even know existed, populated entirely by people I’d never met, I’ve met, in my first week on the job, my old instructor from when I was a student and three people I served with in Afghanistan; I also know for a fact that one person I served with in Korea and another from my tour in Iraq are both here, and I came here with a group of people I spent time with while stationed at Fort Bliss.

The best part of this move, and the main reason I asked for it, is that I should be able to settle down for a bit. There should be some structure, some routine. This is something I really prefer to have in my life; it’s one of the reasons I joined the Army. I work best when I have expectations, deadlines, responsibility, someone to be accountable to. I’m figuring out ways to write at the same time every day and even better, in such a way so as to save my time at home for my family, not holed away in a closet writing another chapter.

God help me, I might be turning into a closet optimist.

I’ve had this grill for four years and am now just beginning to put it through it’s paces. I’ve been deployed twice for a year at a time since buying it, and there was at least one New York winter, and things are always so busy… this year, with my move to Georgia, more peaceful schedule and nicer backyard, I’ve sworn to Sweet Baby Jesus that I’d use the grill more. Of course, doing this without boring the hell out of myself and my family meant expanding my repertoire, and this is my first attempt at doing just that!

Disclaimer: I already know some of the purists among my readers will crucify me for this, but I’ve been using propane these past few years. I’m a huge charcoal fan, but I do have to compromise a bit to save time; I just have too many irons in the fire!

I put this meal together specifically because I could cook the everything on the grill and still have it all ready at the same time. I bought a pork sirloin, pre-marinated in mesquite seasoning. I get great meat prices at the commissary, and I’d never cooked a piece of meat like this on the grill before; I’d pretty much limited myself to hots, burgers, chicken, steak and chops. This is what it looked like pre-grill:

I decided to further challenge myself by trying potatoes, something else I’d never done before on the grill. After a bit of research, I opted to wrap them in foil with some sliced mushrooms and onions, tossed with olive oil, Italian spices and seasoned salt. After pre-heating the grill and scraping the grate, I put the meat and potatoes on the grill together for an fifty minutes (25 min. per pound for the pork), flipping both halfway through. While they cooked, I grilled six jalapeno peppers for a salsa I made later.

When I had roughly ten minutes left before removing the meat and potatoes from the grill, I threw some thick slices of zucchini on the top rack (where I’d grilled the peppers earlier, away from direct flame.) All I did was season them with a bit of salt and pepper and grill each side for about five minutes. One zucchini fed my wife and I, with a few slices left over. Everything came out perfect; the meat was blackened outside and juicy inside, and the potatoes were fluffy and smoky. Here’s the finished product:

Ash Arceneaux plowed into my debut collection, Despairs & Delights. Sounds like a great way to kick off the weekend to me!

…Crisler put his own spin on things, and by bringing in a lot of his own personal experiences, he managed to create realistic, emotional characters that resonate with the reader.

You can take the book for your very own test drive by downloading a PDF copy here, or you can order a signed copy here.

and that means I’ll try and have the documentary live on the site and my YouTube channel by this time next week. You’ll get to see Tim again, view a small feature on the hero of the tour, and a guest singer! I’ll be in Georgia tomorrow, and am thinking back to the last time I moved and wrote about it on my site. I think something in that vein is brewing again. We’ll see shortly. Have ideas for new stories too. Hate it when that happens, and at the same time I love it. I do have pre-existing stories to write, after all, but without fresh ideas, I’d have been screwed four years ago!