Monday, December 12, 2016

State Of The Master - December 2016

Hello All,

The first thing I want to do now is be a little Stereotypical:

Merry Christmas to everyone.
And Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends.

Even though I am not religious, don’t celebrate or like Christmas, I hope others have a safe and happy holidays.

Myself I am looking forward to the New Year. Right now I can’t do much, writing wise. Because of Christmas film studios, publishers, magazines and most places I usually deal – or try to deal – with shut down submissions and acquisitions. So it’s a no go time for me. :-(

In terms of my ‘day job’ (aka how I pay my bills for now), this is the true busy time of the year for myself and my mother and our work. My schedule is going to be in overdrive for the next few weeks.

Right now, I have made the decision to put my blogs on hold for December, even though I just caught up on all of them.

What I Watch I Review, Burning Mind and This Is A True Story will return in January, kicking off the New Year and maybe new formats and schedules.

For Wrestlementary, I will post a Year End piece sometime after Christmas. Other than that, it will return with a new format in January as well.

I am truly looking forward to 2017 and finally going hard into my writing, publishing and filmmaking again. My main focus will be writing, but I will be looking to raise funds for comic projects, feature films and hope to shoot a short film in the second half of 2017.

Well, here is to ending 2016 soon on a good note and start 2017 with a bang!

Ace

Sunday, November 27, 2016

State of the Master - 11/27/2016

This is probably going to be a very brief State of the Master, given that I really one have one thing to say.

I am caught up on all my blogs! My goal this month was to get completely caught up on Burning Mind, This is a True Story and What I Watch I Review, not to mention Wrestlementary, and I have done just that.

I am still posting on Burning Mind through Wednesday, but am basically done.

Other than that, I have been working on side projects I hope to have done soon.

On a personal level, things are really good. My little health scare a few months ago is non-existence and I am suffering no ill effect from my brain aneurysm.

For all those who ask me about that, I am good. Thank you.

Right now I am turning my attention to 2017 and gearing up for what I want to accomplish this coming year.

Later Ace.

Sunday, November 13, 2016

STATE OF THE MASTER 11/13/2016

Well, look at this a State of the Master Blog right on time! Can you believe it? I barely can. ;-)

So far, November is going along very smooth, and life is good.

Why? Because I am getting things done. I laid out a schedule for myself and laid it to bare in the last ‘State of’ blog . . . and I have kept to it!

Wrestlementary is caught up, and What I Watch I Review is on track – This is A True Story is coming up, with Burning Mind to follow.

My week long catch-up for What I Watch I Review – posting daily – is done. What I Watch I Review is almost caught up. This week I will post the last of my catch up reviews on Wednesday, Thursday and What I Watch I Review’s normal day Friday. With this, What I Watch I Review will be completely caught up!

Starting this week (today in fact) my focus turns to This is A True Story through the 19th. To be honest though, I didn’t realize how far behind I was on This Is A True Story, so blogs on that will continue daily or bi-daily well into December to get caught up. The same goes for The Burning Mind, once I start posting those on the 20th.

This may not mean a whole lot to anyone, but it does to me. Getting back on track and getting these caught up is good for my psyche . . . I’m finally getting back into writing, and more will come from that.

Later.

Ace.

Sunday, October 30, 2016

STATE OF THE MASTER - OCTOBER 2016

It has been a while since I posted a State of the Master blog, so here we go.

Well, it is one day till Halloween (my favorite ‘Holiday’) and the next to last day of October.

October . . . October. A very hectic and busy month for me . . . but an exceptionally good one.

I finally got the house renovations done my mother asked me to do (both bathrooms), made headway on writing projects, attended five (5) wrestling events, including a Smackdown show, and made a new close personal friend.

I will write about the wrestling shows for upcoming Wrestlementary Blog posts, and will talk more about my new close personal friend in a This Is A True Story blog post. But, I do want to mention something here though.

This was the highlight on the month; meeting my new close personal friend: Jamilyn.
My business part and best friend Dave and I first meet when he approached me about being in a scene for a film he was making. It was to be with an actress named Jamilyn. Dave and I went on to make other films, but this one has yet to materialize. For the last few years Dave has told me about Jamilyn (and her about me).

About two weeks ago she was here in town and we finally meet. There is no doubt that she is a lady (in the truest sense of that word), and a kind and gentle soul. The event we attended that evening was terrible, but the night was good.

I’ll discuss the event (Extreme Midget Wrestling) and the night in more detail in upcoming blogs.

That was October. November is coming in two days. And speaking of Blogs, my blogs are going to be my focus for November. Big surprise that I am behind on my blogs, again. By the end of November I should be caught up though.

I plan on posting all previous blogs that were supposed to be posted by the end of this month. The idea is to focus on one blog per week – posting daily.

WRESTLEMENTARY
Nov 1 – 5: Wrestlementary is going to be the first focus, posting my EOM and thoughts on recent indie events.

WHAT I WATCH I REVIEW
Nov 6 – 12: For this week I will post one movie review a day.

THIS IS A TRUE STORY
Nov 13 – 19: True Stories from my life coming daily for this week.

BURING MIND
Nov 20 – 30: This is the big bad I am behind on. To that end it gets the most time: 11 days, 11 Burning Mind Reviews.

I will have my next State of the Master up in two weeks. I hope at that time I can write that I have kept to this schedule. Even more so I hope to say I am having another good month.

Hope all is well, with all of you.

Later,
Ace.

Sunday, July 3, 2016

State of the Master 7/3/2016

Hello All,

Well, this has been one Hell of a great year so far!

No, I haven’t gotten quite the amount of stuff I wanted to get done, done, but that is all good. The stuff I have done and what I have achieved made up for it.

I have been really quiet on my Blogs and Social Media. In fact I haven’t posted for almost three months. This time though it is for very good reasons.

Since February I have gotten twenty-one (that is 21) straight short stories picked up by different magazines and anthologies across the globe (Included France and Russia). I have also gotten interest in a film-related book proposal of mine from a British publisher.

This stuff took precedent over the Blogs because I had to do requested re-writes on stories and write samples chapters requested by the publisher. These all took time and I had deadlines. As of this week, I have meet all those deadlines.

In addition to all this writing, I have also spent time indulging in my major hobbies: comics, movies and pro wrestling!

Speaking of those hobbies, a few words on my blogs are needed here. In the past I would try and get caught up. I don’t plan to do that now. My blogs with return in July, but with a more reasonable schedule that I can manage with my life and my writing becoming more active at this moment.

No major changes will be made to BURNING MIND, THIS IS A TRUE STORY or WHAT I WATCH I REVIEW. However Wrestlementary will be going to a monthly blog. I will write monthly pieces covering WWE, NXT, TNA, Lucha Underground and the local AWF. I will write other pieces as I see fit. I will post more details on the Wrestlementary Blog tomorrow, during Monday Night Raw.

Life is Good.

Ace.

Saturday, March 26, 2016

State of the Master 3/26/2016

First thing first, I am okay. I’ve had a people few message me asking that since I have been quite the last few weeks.

Secondly, I was pleasantly surprised that I received a few messages asking about missed blogs. That made me feel good.

Normally I would post my State of the Master Blog on Sundays, but I am posting this early because I hope to do a little catch up starting Sunday.

First, I want to lay out why I have been quite. The last few weeks have been a very hectic, filled with crap and frankly stressfully to the point of making me pissy. Yes, I wrote pissy. Issues have ranged from two plumbing leaks in the house (Kitchen and Bathroom), people (clients) expecting way too much and my mom still being sick – and many people diagnosing what it going on with her.

The most important of these things is my mother, of course. She is over her bout with Bronchitis, but is still having a bad cough. For the most part it seems to be allergies, but I am trying to get her to see the doctor and at least get x-rays. Her regular doctor this time, not his fellow doctor in the practice that gave her medicine she should never have been on.

That is part of the problem with our clients. Many are diagnosing my mother with everything from a collapse lung, empahzuema and even the Zeka Virus! Idiots. Some are even given her THEIR prescription meds and claiming they will make her better. My mother is too smart to actually take the meds, fortunately.

These fools could kill my mother as they have no idea of her medical history or what meds she is on regularly. I do. At least one the meds a client tried to get her to take has a severe reaction when combined with one of my mom’s meds. It’s called DEATH!

The other issues that has lasted a few weeks is leaks in the house. A small leak in the kitchen and a massive leak in the bathroom. Fortunately both leaks were in the drainpipe, so as long as we didn’t use the sinks all was good. Bad news is that the insurance denied coverage on both leaks.

One plumber tried to scam my mom for two grand, even going so far as to ask what I had to do with anything and why I was even at the house. Of course, I kicked his ass out. Along with the help of one of our clients, I ended up fixing both leaks myself. And reinjuring my shoulder in the process.

One thing that really pisses me off, is people offering my time to other people and telling them I will do things for them - without me ever knowing. I got a call two weeks ago from a woman I had never meet demanding to know where I was. Turns out one of our clients told her I would be over to her house to do work for her. Yet, no one told me, and I never agreed to anything. Because of two clients, I have had to deal with this issue a lot lately.

Some of these people have even gone to the HOA and tried to get me pulled as a vendor, claiming I am not doing the work. I had to, and did, prove that I never knew anything about these ‘gigs’ and three of the people who made complaints, admitted they had never talked to me.

The good news is that all this crap is now cleared up and I can move on and return to my blogs and other projects! Yeah.


I know this sounds bitchy and complaining, but I needed to vent. Thanks.

The Blogs:

Now that things are cleared up, I have decided to use the remainder of March to get blogs caught up. I am going to get back to projects starting April 1.

THIS IS A TRUE STORY and WHAT I WATCH I REVIEW will return on Thursday and Friday. I have not decided if I will try and catch up on the missed postings, or just go from here. I will make my decision and post it on Thursday or Friday with the new Blogs.

BURNING MIND: I will get caught up on my reviews for The Burning Mind at least. Most of what I had intended to review have been written, I just didn’t get around to posting. I will probably post all of them this week, and be caught up with my reviews by next Saturday. As for articles, I am not going to get caught up on them, just move forward.

WRESTLEMENTARY: This is the big Blog that has been neglected. I have done nothing with it in the last weeks. Every year around this time (Rumble to Mania) I plan to do a lot, and it hasn’t happened the last two years. Once again something popped up this year.

Well, I am going to do something starting tomorrow (Sunday). Every day this week I am going to post Road to WrestleMania Blogs. These will start tomorrow with a general recap of the RAWS and SMACKDOWNS I haven’t covered and thoughts on storylines so far. The road will continue as I will post a piece everyday breaking down each match on the card.

On Sunday, I will post my official predictions for the Card.

I will NOT cover TNA this week. Next week I will give my thought on TNA and get caught up. After that I will write about Lucha Underground – something I am really backed up on.

Okay, that’s it for now.

Later,

Ace.

Sunday, January 31, 2016

A GOOD START TO 2016

Hello All,

Well, as I write this, it is the 31 of January, and this year is doing well so far. This past Wednesday was two years to the day I survived my Brain Aneurysm. This past Friday was two years to the date (1/29/2014).

How’d I spend this rather unwelcome anniversary? I went to not one but TWO local indie wrestling events and spend time with good friends. In other words, LIVING LIFE.

January has been a very good month. One of the things I am really happy about is that I have gotten all my Blogs out on time! Well almost, this weekend’s Burning Mind Review was a day late (http://skullablaze.blogspot.com/2016/01/burning-mind-review-hinges-book-1.html), and Wrestlementary WrapUp for Week 4 will be late this week, on Monday or Tuesday.

Now, I just need more people to read them!

If you missed any, here are the links:

Burning Mind:
Obi-wan and Anakin: http://skullablaze.blogspot.com/2016/01/obi-wan-and-anakin-1.html

Rejoice in Star Wars: http://skullablaze.blogspot.com/2016/01/rejoice-in-star-wars-comics.html

Sheriff of Babylon: http://skullablaze.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-sheriff-of-babylon.html

Spread: http://skullablaze.blogspot.com/2016/01/spread-issues-1-12.html

The Horror of Yore: http://skullablaze.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-horror-of-yore.html

Phonogram – The Immaterial Girl: http://skullablaze.blogspot.com/2016/01/phonogram-immaterial-girl.html

Hinges: http://skullablaze.blogspot.com/2016/01/burning-mind-review-hinges-book-1.html

This is a True Story:
May The Coke Be With You: http://trulyhappened.blogspot.com/2016/01/my-coke-be-with-you.html

Crazy Cook Book: http://trulyhappened.blogspot.com/2016/01/this-is-true-story-crazy-cookbook.html

Hey, His Jacket: http://trulyhappened.blogspot.com/2016/01/hey-his-jacket.html

What’s Wrong With You?: http://trulyhappened.blogspot.com/2016/01/whats-wrong-with-you.html

What I Watch I Review:
Star Wars: The Forces Awakens:  http://whatiwatchtireview.blogspot.com/2016/01/star-wars-forces-awakens-review.html

MetalStorm: http://whatiwatchtireview.blogspot.com/2016/01/metalstorm-destruction-of-jared-syn.html

Wrestlementary:
WrapUp Week 1: http://wrestlementary.blogspot.com/2016/01/wrestlementary-weekly-wrapup-week-1.html

WrapUp Week 2: http://wrestlementary.blogspot.com/2016/01/wrestlementary-weekly-wrapup-week-2.html

WrapUp Week 3: http://wrestlementary.blogspot.com/2016/01/wrestlementary-wrapup-week-3.html

And comment please, positive and negative welcome. Not all need to agree with me.

I didn’t quite get everything I wanted to get done this month, but I am extremely pleased with everything I did get done. Which included returning to writing as often as I can, not just my blogs, but also my novel The Book of Sven Vaunder.

Hope all is well for everyone.

Be good.

Later, Ace.

Friday, January 1, 2016

2016 - The Year I Am Back!!

Ok, I am going to get this out of the way first:

THE STATE OF THE MASTER IS
MASTERIFFIC!!!

Yes, I know that isn’t a word, but it is now.

Now I want to wish everyone who reads this
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This is obviously my first blog post of the New Year, and my first blog of any sort in a few months. The State of the Master Blog was always planned to be every two weeks, and on a Sunday. I decided to jump the gun for this post, with this being the first and all.

I also plan to try and keep to the every two week schedule, but don’t be surprised if I don’t.

With this post I want to state my first and biggest intentions for 2016 – which is for it to be a good year. O:-)

2014 and 2015 weren’t overly kind. 2014 was derailed by my aneurysm, and 2015 derailed by injuries to myself and my mother. So I am looking for to a health problem-injury-free 2016.

Because of the aneurysm, I took 2015 off from projects by request of my mother and advice of my doctor, after my last angiogram in September 2014. Both just wanted to give me another full year to be sure of my recovery. And my recovery is FOR SURE!

2016 is my year to get back on track. I doubt I will film anything this year, but it might happen. My focus is going to be on my writing, with a lesser degree on art. I plan on finishing some projects, editing and polishing off others and submitting out tons of short stories and comic book projects.

One major goal this year is to prep projects and business plans, with the idea to start looking for investors in 2017.

No matter what happens, I am going to make 2016 a great year.

Ace Masters.