Saturday, January 10, 2015

Hanging Tough

Ok, so the tail end of 2014 kicked my creative butt.

You know how it goes: the bills roll in, the car breaks down, the kids need jail bonds, and you find that 9-5 job turns into 6-8.

But 2015 is a year to punch all that in the face. I'm looking at entering a new decade and by golly I think I'm a big boy now. Big enough to make a schedule that fits my wild and crazy creative exploits nicely alongside my worky-work money-making exploits.

(Work has been really good. My wife, looking over our bank account, asked me recently whether I had started cooking meth in the home office. "No," I said, "I just was really darn productive and got some new clients." Looking back I should have told her I'd become a professional bear wrestler.)

So, 2015. Let's do this.

To start this thing off right, we must look to an inspiring hero to really set the tone of butt-kicking to follow.

I give you: Bat-Viking.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Vegas Valley Book Fest Promo Card

Attention humans: I've heard reports that some of you are experiencing problems with the download promo cards I was slinging around at Vegas Valley Book Festival.

If so, let me know! I apologize for any inconvenience too.

I've notified my publisher, Samhain Publishing, to see if somewhere on the webstore a checkbox didn't get checked or something. That sort of stuff happens.

Stay tuned.

The mason

Monday, October 13, 2014

Illiterati in Desert Companion magazine

I totally spaced on the fun news:

Probably, oh, all of you know that I belong to a super secret writers group called The Illiterati.
We are very serious. (see pictures demonstrating our seriousness below)

We meet every week, critique each other's stories and novels, have word wars, bake cookies, act very silly serious, and make plans for world domination through synchronized finger-snapping whilst walking.

All this to say, Desert Companion, a really great arts and culture magazine, sent an intrepid journalist by the name of Scott Dickensheets to sit in on one of our weekly Illiterati critique sessions.

We had loads of fun, we critiqued each other's stories (even made Scott bring a piece so we could make him cry), we played banjo and ukuleles, and no one got hurt! All in all a successful night.

It's in the October issue of Desert Companion! (read it online here)


The Illiterati is: Ryan Bridger, Billie Bundschuh, Mason Ian Bundschuh, Matt Czarnowski, Mercedes M. Yardley


2014 - still serious after all these years
2013 - very serious
that time we were in an MMORPG together
2010 - super incredibly serious



Sunday, October 12, 2014

Vegas Valley Book Festival 2014

If you like book things and live in Las Vegas, then you ought to know about the annual Vegas Valley Book Festival. http://vegasvalleybookfestival.org/

Honestly, a book festival in Las Vegas. Didn't you know? We're cultured bro.

There is free food, so writers come out of the woodwork for it. And have I mentioned there are lots of books?

This year I’ll be on the “Las Vegas Writes” panel with a few other local authors such as fellow Illiterati-member Mercedes M. Yardley, Scott Dickensheets, David Armstrong, Heidi Kyser, Joseph Langdon, Launce Rake, Moniro Ravanipour, Geoff Schumacher, and T.R. Witcher.

The panel is 11 AM on Saturday Oct 18th (in the Auditorium)

Come by and heckle!

Here’s the deets:

Vegas Valley Book Festival

Historic 5th Street School
401 S. 4th Street, Las Vegas NV 89101


Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Lost and Found in Las Vegas Anthology

More publication news!

My short story Strip Away recently came out in the anthology "Lost and Found in Las Vegas: What the City Hides and What It Reveals" Edited by Scott Dickensheets, Huntington Press (August 28, 2014)

It's a Twilight Zoney twisty tale of creepiness.

Jacob has a problem. He's late for work slinging cards at one of the ritzy casinos on Las Vegas Strip. But that's not really his problem. Instead it's that no matter where he turns and no matter which exit he takes he can't seem to find Las Vegas. It's as if the whole city no longer exists on this plane.
Strip Away.

All the authors in this anthology will be having some panelist fun this year at the Vegas Valley Book Festival (more on that later) so make sure you're planning on attending.

The super fun thing about this anthology is that I share the table of contents with my Illiterati pal Mercedes M. Yardley! Fun times. The writing group that stays together gets published together.

We are very serious writers (photo credit Brent Holmes)


Monday, September 29, 2014

I Wonz teh Awkward Author Photo Contest

I can finally tell my mom that I'm a winner.

Wild and crazy novelist, screenwriter, blogger, and game designer, Chuck Wendig http://terribleminds.com/ had a very serious and thoughtful contest to solicit the most awkward author photos of all time (well, of at least those readers of his blog who were silly enough to enter).

Here's where he scientifically tallied the votes (complete with snazzy info-graphic)

And here's my winning entry:


Let that sink in.

...

...

...

And here's my reaction when I found out I'd won this prestigious award:

Hagrid learns he's been accepted to Hogwarts

good times.


Thursday, September 4, 2014

Qualia Nous Released Into the Wild

Ladies and gentlefrogs, my short story “Breathe You in Me” is contained within the pages of QUALIA NOUS.

QUALIA NOUS is a collection of short stories billed as “a literary blend of science fiction and horror.”
I can dig it.

“Breathe You in Me”, was one of those sit-down-with-nothing-in-mind-then-all-of-a-sudden-write-in-a-fury-to-finish-it-in-one-sitting things. Those of you who are writers will have had that elusive experience. It’s a weird form of possession, or so it feels. You’re merely the channel for an idea that must strike the earth like verbose lightning.

It’s the only thing I ever wrote in 2nd person—and only because the narrative demanded it. I managed to combine the sewer city under Las Vegas and the flesh-eating drug Krokodil and fungi.

Yes, there is a sewer city underneath Las Vegas.
As a Las Vegas writer I find that there is no end to potential material here. This place is full of some crazy stories. You just have to listen.

Anyhow, I’m honored to share the QUALIA NOUS table of contents (TOC for us fancypants types) with some amazing writers. Editor Michael Bailey has a real knack for putting together dynamic and potent anthologies—featuring seasoned veterans and up-and-coming authors you need to know about NOW.

And Stephen King’s in it. Even my mom knows who Stephen King is.

So that’s pretty cool.

I’m trying to start the rumor that ole Stevey and I have been having BBQ’s at one another’s summer homes, clinking glasses and toasting to obscure rock’n’roll bands.

My wife suggests that I’m taking the fanboy thing a little too far. The restraining order from Mr. King would tend to support this observation, except I know that only means he wants me to pursue our friendship even more ardently…

;)


 Here's the table of contents. Mucho kudos goes to those who typed and linked all this out. (if it was you, take credit!)

·                                 “The Jaunt” by Stephen King
·                                 “The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family” by Usman Tanveer Malik
·                                 “The Shaking Man” by Gene O’Neill
·                                 “Dyscrasia” by Ashlee Scheuerman
·                                 “The Rondelium Girl of Rue Marseille” by Emily B. Cataneo
·                                 “The Angel Chaser” by Erik T. Johnson
·                                 “Psychic Shock” by Ian Shoebridge
·                                 “Peppermint Tea in Electronic Limbo” by D.J. Cockburn
·                                 “Second Chance” by John R. Little
·                                 “The Effigies of Tamber Square” by Jon Michael Kelley
·                                 “Shades of Naught” by Lori Michelle
·                                 “The Price of Faces” by James Chambers
·                                 “Simulacrum” by Jason V Brock
·                                 “Shutdown” & “Tomorrow’s Femme” (poetry) by Marge Simon
·                                 “Lead Me to Multiplicity” by Peter Hagelslag
·                                 “Cataldo’s Copy” by Christian A. Larsen
·                                 “The Neighborhood Has a Barbecue” by Max Booth III
·                                 “The Jenny Store” by Richard Thomas
·                                 “Night Guard” by Erinn L. Kemper
·                                 “A New Man” by William F. Nolan
·                                 “Voyeur” by John Everson
·                                 “Kilroy Wasn’t There” by Pat R. Steiner
·                                 “In the Nothing-Space, I Am What You Made Me” by Paul Anderson
·                                 “Dura Matter” by Lucy A. Snyder
·                                 “Ruminations” by Rena Mason
·                                 “Good and Faithful Servant” by Thomas F. Monteleone
·                                 “Twelve Kilos” by Patrick Freivald
·                                 “Breathe You In Me” by Mason Ian Bundschuh
·                                 “18P37-C, After Andrea Was Arrested” by Elizabeth Massie
·                                 “No Fixed Address” by Gary A. Braunbeck