All posts by Axel Howerton

Axel Howerton is a former entertainment journalist, and the author of the Arthur Ellis Award nominated detective caper "Hot Sinatra", the modern gothic fairytale "Furr", and the forthcoming "Wolf & Devil" urban fantasy series. His work, including short stories, columns, poetry and essays, have appeared the world over, in no fewer than five languages. Axel is the Prairies director of the Crime Writers of Canada, and a member of the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association, the Calgary Crime Writers, and the Kintsugi Poets. He is also the editor of the books "Death by Drive-In", "AB Negative", and "Tall Tales of the Weird West", and is the organizer behind one of Canada's first recurring "Noir At The Bar" events, #NoirBarYYC. Visit Axel online at www.axelhow.com to sign up for the GotHow? email list and receive free exclusive ebook collections, sneak peeks, and more.#AxelHow #GotHow

Happy Flux Capacitor Day!

flux_capacitor

Today is ‘Flux Capacitor’ day. Where we, as a planet, celebrate the man who invented time travel. All over the world, people will be ordering ‘milk… chocolate’ and burning effigies of Bif Tannen and his fellow miscreants – ‘Match’ and ‘3-D Glasses’. But how many remember the real reason behind this holiday and the true story of Dr. Emmet Brown, one of the greatest scientific minds of human history?

Continue reading Happy Flux Capacitor Day!

NiCoPotOFoMoYoHo! Day wha?

nano_09_red_participant_100x100_2Okay. Day 5 and I am ahead of the curve. FINALLY! I caught up for the two-day-late start and am right on track. According to the average per diem to hit 10K, I should be at 8333 by the end of today. Somehow I managed to finish chapter 3 at lunch with a grand total of 8444. I give full credit to the return of the Starbucks Eggnog Latte. Now I’m going to take the rest of the day off of NaNoWriMo and spend the evening with my boyos and watching Must-See Thursday night comedy on NBC.  So come 9:30, I’ll be rollin’ with Tom Haverford and a big ol’ Scotchy Scotch, bitches!

WuTangMoToBeeBo – Day 2

nano_09_blk_participant_100x100_1.png Well kids, Day 2 (for me, Day 4 for the contest… see below for details) was mildly disappointing as I was hoping to catch up to that 6667 total that would have put me on track with the people that actually started on schedule.

I did manage to hit a grand total of 5526, which ain’t nothin’ to sneeze at (and I also put together an accompanying soundtrack list for my MP3 player and laid out the first 4 chapters treatment -style, which was another 1500 words…) Hmm… guess I did alright after all!

I also decided to change the name of the story to HOT SINATRA, which I hope will evoke the idea of a stolen record and not frat-boy slang for some from of sexual deviance involving a flaming bag of poop and a crownless fedora.

Back at it at 6Am tomorrow and hopefully come back with a G.T. of 8000+… We’ll see. That’s a big order when I’m trying to work around the nefarious idiocy of the workplace, as well as fit in time for my wife, her burgeoning business and the Jabroni brothers. I spent most of this evening running the 4 year-old back and forth across the WalMart from the toy section to the bathroom to the Wii section to the bathroom to the toy section… I spent the rest of the night vainly attempting to keep the 9 month-old from eating the shopping cart, any loose cardboard within his Plastic-Man reach, his own clothes, a Starbucks cup and, I can only assume, the accumulated germ and viral loads of the last 1,000 people in the vicinity.

In other familial news, my Wife promises me that, should I finish and win the NaNoWriMo, I am fully empowered to blow off any and all disagreeable situations by simply shouting “FUCK YOU, I WROTE A NOVEL!” Can’t wait to use that one on a few select people! I’m looking at you, smarmy 7-11 guy!

Good times! Don;t forget to click on the NaNoWriMo pic in the top right to keep up with my progress (or lack thereof).

NaNoWriMo update – Day one

Shield-Nano-Blue-Brown-RGB-biggerOK, first off, it’s actually day three… but I just started writing my story this morning at 6AM.

BUT… I’m sitting at a comfortable 2490 words between the 90 minutes I got this morning and the hour I pounded out at lunch. That means I only have 47,510 words to go? No problem! The only problem thus far is that I can;t get the fucking widget to work over there on the right of this page!

My current plan is to drag my bulky ass out of bed at 5AM every day this month, go to work hella-early (so as not to wake the kids… or decide to just keep writing and NOT go to work) and get at least 90 minutes in. Then write at lunch and try to pick up an hour after the jabroni brothers are tucked safely in bed round 9PM. I should also have a good couple hours on Saturday morning whilst I wit for my car to be fitted with new rubber.

Anyways… check me out on the NaNoWriMo site (I’m inmate # 587589) or check back here or on twitter for updates.

Now click on for the first little morsel of the story: HOT SINATRA

Continue reading NaNoWriMo update – Day one