BRAINPAN LEAKAGE

I have to be honest. The picture you see at left has absolutely nothing to do with this blog entry… Well, kinda nothing.

You see, it wasn’t even included with the original posting of this particular entry. However, in the process of moving things from Myspace to the new home of Brainpan Leakage, I was also doing a bit of straightening up around the hard drive… Early spring cleaning, so to speak… Well, as luck would have it, I ran across this picture of EK and me from a costume party we held on our 8^th anniversary (remember, we got married on Halloween)…  8th anniversary…spiders…8 legs… yeah, we were all about themes back then… I’ll have to see about digging out some of our other costume party photos.  But, there I go digressing…

Anyway, so given the title of this blog entry, as well as the Addams family references, EK looking all dangerous & sexy in her “Black Widow” outfit, and me as her webbed over prey, just seemed to fit and I decided maybe I should post it here…

Even if it doesn’t exactly fit, well, it’s kind of a cute picture.

But, on with the original blog…

So I’m on a few of these other social networking sites. Yeah, I know, there are a ton of them out there, and I cannot possibly be on all of them or I would never get any writing done. But in the interest of “viral marketing” I do hang out on a couple of the others besides Myspace. Hey, it’s all about getting name recognition. People see me, see my name, then the next time they see it the little bulb lights up to trigger the “hey, I’ve heard of that guy before”… Then, maybe they eventually get around to buying a book or two. Then, I get to keep writing books. (Kind of a vicious circle, eh?)

Yeah, I know. Get to the point, Gomez…

Anyway, I’m sure you are wondering “why the Addams family lyrics for a title of this blog?” Well, I’ll tell you. On one of those other social networking sites, someone posted a comment to my page that went a little something like this:

“…You two must be a HOOT at Parent-Teacher’s day! LOL! (WHY did the image of Gomez and Morticia Addams meeting Mr. Rodgers just pop into my head? “its a lovely day in the embalming room, a lovely day in the freezer…oh, will you be my, won’t you be, my cadaver?” LOL!)…”

Obviously that isn’t the entire comment, but basically it came on the heels of some banter about Evil Kat, and the question that due to the genre of my writing whether or not she is afraid to go to sleep with me around. To that I simply replied that she is far more evil than I could possibly be.

At any rate, the Addams family reference as well as the P/T conference thing begged an answer (you know me, just can’t shut up for anything). So, I answered. My  reply seemed to tickle quite a few folks, so I thought maybe I’d repeat it here.

Yes… Parent – Teacher Conferences are VERY interesting… Primarily on the first orientation conference, after Wednesday (well, you started it with the Addams family stuff – besides, I don’t publish the munchkins name) tells everyone in her class that “Daddy writes books” …  So, the first conference goes something like the following (note: this is a fairly accurate recounting of almost every initial P/T conference we have attended)–

Teacher: Mister Sellars, nice to meet you. Wednesday just goes on and on about how you are an author.

Murv: Yeah, she gets a bit excited about things at times.

Teacher: So, what are your books about?

Murv: They’re paranormal suspense novels about a Witch who helps the Saint Louis Major Case Squad track down and apprehend serial killers.

Teacher: [horrified silence]

Murv: [Grin]

Teacher: So…ummm…uhhh…they aren’t children’s books then?

Murv: No. Not so much. I told Wednesday she’s not allowed to read them until she’s at least 35. Oh, and by the way, whenever I’m not out of town on tour I’m available to help out as a room parent for field trips and such. Just give me a call.

Teacher: [rushing to change the subject] Ummm, uhhh. okay…uhhh…So! Wendesday’s Mom! I understand YOU fix computers!

So, there you have it… That really and truly is pretty much how our initial meetings with the munchkin’s teachers go. Fortunately, after that things seem to settle down. Especially after I send postcards to the class when I am gallivanting around the country on tour. In fact, they even end up deciding I’m pretty okay.

Yeah, I’ve even been determined to be okay enough that I’ve actually done the room parent thing on field trips. (LOL)

More to come…

Murv

Okee Dokee…

So, right now I am running around like a chicken with its head cut off (and, I am familiar with what that looks like firsthand… Remember, I grew up on a farm) trying to get things together, get packed, make sure the laundry is done, and see to it that my girls have food in the fridge, all before I hop a plane tomorrow for Texas.

Yeah, I gotta spend 4 days in Texas with Morrison. Pity me! (LOL) Actually, I’m looking forward to it, and for a change the weather seems to be cooperating so it looks like I will really make it there instead of being iced in like happened last month. (Sorry Detroit!)

Anywho, other than touting the fact that I am going to another country for a few days, I wanted to address something really quick like… Actually, a few things. So, in the interest of expedience I’ll just enumerate them –

1) I had a great time on the Paranormal Divas Monday night. It was a good show and they have already told me they’d like to have me back on the air with them, so that should be fun! Thanks Shelley and Christine!

2) I just did a phone and email interview with a lovely young lady who wrote an article about me for Modern Witch Magazine. Modern Witch is a new quarterly mag that is supposed to officially launch its maiden issue next month. So, be on the lookout for it, because Julie (the writer) made me sound like a really cool guy. [ I have no idea how she got that idea, but I’m telling you she has a future in fiction writing! (GRIN) ]

And that brings me to 3…

3) One of the questions I get 95% of the time during interviews is “Where do you get your ideas?”… I always say “my nightmares”, which is largely true, but I also credit the news for some of the input. Over the years I’ve had folks tell me that the news simply doesn’t have headlines that are anywhere near as weird as the crimes in my books. Personally, I think these folks are hiding under rocks… Therefore, as an example, here are two headlines and they are just from TODAY. This isn’t even counting the hundred or so I could pull out of the past few months archives…

MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) – Two Italian women carrying luggage containing the remains of a man who died in Brazil 11 years ago were stopped by Munich airport police during a stopover on their journey from Sao Paulo to Naples.

BEIJING (Reuters) – A Chinese bride burned her new husband to death after he got into bed after a drunken argument without washing his feet, state media reported on Wednesday.

See what I mean?

If I have Internet access at my hotel I might check in and let you folks in the United States know what is happening in The Republic of Texas while I am there.

Now…where did I put my passport?

More to come…

Murv