Hey, gang! I don’t know if you all have noticed, but I’ve been trying to blog more regularly and do a better job keeping in touch with my readers.  In that spirit, welcome to the news update for the month of May!

What’s new?  The first bit of news is that I have a new Patreon page.  I you haven’t checked it out yet, do yourself a favor and head over there.  Lots of good stuff– writing, art, behind-the-scenes extras– some of which is available only to patrons.  For example, patrons who pledge two dollars a month get a new short story every month, plus access to the vault of previous Patreon stories.

But this newsletter is always going to be both free and public. This means if you want to keep up with what’s happening with me and my writing, you don’t have to be a patron. You don’t even have to give me your email address for a mailing list– you can find it here, or on Patreon.  If, however, you would like the newsletter to be emailed to you every month automatically, just go to my Patreon page click on the button that says FOLLOW at the top left of the page.  (It’s free.)

From now on, there are a few things you should expect to see in news updates like this one.  There will be some stuff about the Patreon page.  For instance, I’ll always look back to the previous week and reveal the result of the monthly Deciders vote. Likewise, I’ll look forward by announcing which story is going to be posted here the first week of next month. And if there’s an upcoming Patronapalooza, I’ll also talk about that.

If I have a book or story coming out, the newsletter will announce it and provide links to order or preorder. I’ll also talk about what’s going on in my life, whether big stuff (we had a baby!) or small (we saw a movie!). And I’ll always throw in some pictures.

So, are we ready? Great! Here we go!

Deciders vote PLUS Patronapalooza : Last week, patrons at the Decider level and up voted on what we should do for Patronapalooza. (It’s a week long special event we’ll have every month with 5 Mondays.) There were lots of good options (which you may see again in July) but the final vote was unanimous.  

So, next week I will give “every patron access to an audio recording (1-2 hours) of the first three or four chapters of a current work in progress.”  And what is that work?  It’s a novel, tentatively titled The Mundanes:

A sinister alien entity threatens humanity.  Earth’s mightiest heroes are our only hope.  And unless Nikki Nelson can file their taxes before the 15th, there will be penalties not to exceed 25% of the total unpaid taxes.  Biff!  Pow!  Doom!

It’s a superhero book where ordinary people save the day– and it’s been so much FUN to write.  Man, I can’t wait to share this with all of you.  I’ve already started doing some recording, and it’s coming out really well (especially considering that I have no special recording studio, etc.).

But don’t sleep on this.  When Patronapalooza is over, the audio files will shortly vanish into the mist like Darkmoon Island.  So if you’re curious about what I’ve been writing, go pledge a dollar and listen to the first few chapters.

Upcoming story of the month : On Monday, June 5th, a new short story will be posted over on Patreon for all supporters at the Reader level ($2/month) and up.  This month, I’ve chosen a story called “Lullaby,” which was published last year in Dragon Writers: An Anthology.

It’s about a mommy and daddy dragon who are trying to get their hungry babies to quiet down and go to sleep.  I wrote it on nights when I was rocking my own noisy and rambunctious little one, so it’s got a lot of my heart and soul in it.  Plus: ravenous, rampaging dragons.  Raaaaarrrrr!!!

Movie review : Earlier this month, my awesome in-laws watched the kiddos so the Queen of Eternia and I could go out and see Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2. (Thank you, J+L!) Following both the scientific method and my heart , I have arrived at a rating of 4/5 Galaxies. A delightful romp full of explosions and lasers and funny lines.  Loved it!  

Two disappointments keep this from reaching the lofty heights of the first installment. First, the incomparable Kurt Russell, though wonderful in his early scenes, was boring after the face/heel turn. Not a memorable villainous moment or line, just a super dumb Saturday morning cartoon cliche. Boo.

Second, one of the great surprises of the first was that it made me care about a CGI raccoon voiced by Bradley Cooper. This one gave him a stupid tacked-on Hollywood phony character arc that left me literally yawning with rage. Damn you, Gunn brothers, for giving me such a gift and then taking it away from me. Double boo.

That said, everybody else was just as lovably amoral as in the first one except Yondu and Drax were even better. And I loved the new addition of the gross bug-lady, who I hope we will see more of in future films which will also star a surly teenage Groot. (But not Sylvester Stallone, who was bleah.)

Life Updates : In addition to being excited and hopeful about future mixtapes from Chris Pratt, there are a lot of other awesome changes on the horizon for Casa de Payne.

Last week I turned in the grades for my final semester of teaching at the university. After a lifetime spent on one side of the desk or another, I am leaving academia.

I will miss teaching in a university setting, but my new career of dad/writer has been awesome on the balance. In my first week, I’ve had twice as many awesome writing days (4) as days I had to change my clothes and shower because of baby barf (2). Frankly, I can’t believe how lucky I am to be joining the stay-at-home dad club.

This change should also give me a lot more time to write. I’ve got two novels in the works, and if I can keep my pace up I will finish both by the end of the year. Hooray!

Our final change is that we are moving to New Mexico, where my darling wife will be starting a new job. We have loved Texas and we’re worry to leave it, but fortunately we’ll be just an hour or so across the border. So any time we want our stars at night to be big and bright, we’ll be in easy driving distance.

As we prepare for a big move and lots of other big changes, we’re grateful to live in a time when it’s so easy to keep in touch with friends and family across the world.  Thank you all for your support and well-wishing.  And please keep an eye out for next month’s update.  Same bat-time, same bat-channel.

–JDP