Happy New Year!!Nothing but the chrome in 2009, people! That's right: we here, we ready and we starting the countdown to Cinco de Harwood on 5/5/09.

OK, maybe I'm a bit early in that talk, but you know I've been waiting a long time for this.

For now, tide yourself over with Young Junius - 17, the ruckus and the rumble. You want more? How about 

Sigler/Harwood Pubcrawl #18 - Saturday Jan. 10th - Phoenix Bar after Scott's reading at Borderlands Books in the Mission. Reading starts at 3PM. Be there to buy Contagious and get it signed! Just don't come into direct contact with Scott's evil skin.

Want Missions? Vlade's working on that and we'll have them for you soon. Check back this week for the new Missions page, coming very soon.

Want movie recs? Watch the heck outa Shaft. If you haven't seen it already, shame on you. Like the man says, "Hotter than Bond, cooler than Bullitt. If you want to see Shaft, ask your momma!" He's Shaft! See the trailer here.

Otherwise, go watch every episode of The Wire. Both are available from Netflix. Sign up here.

That's it. Big 09 for us. Thanks for all your love and support in 08! --yer boy.

Shaft. 1971.

Watch this trailer.

Confession time. And I'm putting this in here where not everyone will see it, but those of you who check these things will. Now, I've written some of you into this thing and promised to kill many of you off. I've also, undoubtedly, promised a war with my choice of music. But here's the facts: I can't kill all my characters lightly. Having Junius turn into a psycho killer who mows people down might not be entirely keeping with the world that I want to write. I mean, I think it's fair to say that everyone got mowed down at the end of JWU, and there'll be some mowing down to happen here in the Towers, but I'm not sure Junius is ready to go ahead with that yet.

Do you think Junius is ready to turn into a cold killer? Jane Gannon read the pages and she seems entirely convinced that he isn't. Now I've had him kill those two in the stairwell and I'm not sure what his next move is. I just can't see him mowing down everyone on Rock's hallway and going in blazing up Rock and Berry Rich both. Can you? Maybe this is lifting the veil too much, taking the curtain aside. Or maybe it's just showing you the process of me being a writer: the fact is this: I'm getting to know Young Junius (the character) just like you guys are. I'm getting to know him by his actions. Step by step. So what's his next step? What are his next steps? I guess I'm confessing that I can't see him as The Punisher right now. He's 14. More a victim than a murderer. But we'll see how everything turns out. Today I felt like I needed to confess this. There's my confession.

Time for some much-needed rest. I'm not blogging much these days, but that bastard Akakievich is. Check him out at Akakievich.com. It's actually kind of funny.

You ready to buy your copy(ies) of CONTAGIOUS?

Direct link to episode 16. (Click to listen. Right-click to download.)

Pre-holidays everybody! Chanukah starts tonight (12/21), XMas on the way, I'm taking a break for a week to go visit the Gannons down in Florida, and everyone's happy, right?

You can check out Jeremy Robinson's Kronos here.

Vlade stops by to tell you about his next mission, which happens to be a contest. I'm busted up about the end of 2008, a big year for me, but I try and keep a cap on that. I give you 33 minutes of real-time story to bust up in your ear-piece, and what more could you ask for on your pre-XMas commute or fly-time listening space? Another CrimeWAV story? yeah, I'll have that for you this week! Scott Sigler's next book Contagious is coming out December 30th! I'll even be at his SF reading on 1/10 to celebrate, buy that sh*t, and drink a few beers after. Pub crawl? Yep.

Vlade says don't, but I say it's ok to visit Akakievich.com. Just because it LOOKS GOOD! And join the ACR? Hells YES!

For Netflix.com this week: sign up, enjoy a free movie with your family, or start watching Dexter. If you haven't, you better!

Yeah, I'm back at it, biotches!! Put in just over 1,500 words today on the Young Junius draft and it's ABOUT TIME!! Serious. Been since about 5 weeks since I battered down some words. Can't let it go that long again, especially with all the podcasts coming out. Keeping at it, heading into the new year!

Afternoon writing today. But what's most important is... getting it done.

This week's movie pick is The Hebrew Hammer (2003) with Adam Goldberg. Sign up for Netflix here and then get it into your queue!!

I'm tired, people! I'm tired I tells ya! Too much chit-chatting at the holiday parties, too much of the this and that, the yadda yee yadda, and not enough time spent sitting in my recording room talking to you guys! Yes, not enough of that and not enough of the work on Young Junius the manuscript. Times is catching up to me and that means--yes, it's the perfect time for this glorious semester to come to an end. So, happily it does. And then I go back to writing. Good.

I know I forgot something this week, but what can you do?

Direct link to episode 15 (right-click to download). You know, you just click to listen. But why not subscribe on iTunes?

Join the ACR. How? Let Vlade tell you. Latest mission: Invite a friend! Do not visit Akakievich.com

SSF this week by Mike Farley. Check him out at mtfarley.com

This week's movie choice? It's the Hebrew Hammer, son! Circa 2003.

That's right: this is us! Will you join the legion of us painting our faces and stomping through the woods toward Palms Sunday and Cinco de Harwood? Will you learn Czech Karate, medicine, helicopter and fighter jet flying, and how to swim underwater in full clothing while carrying a gun? Will YOU stand behind Vlade, Niki and myself as we pop out of the water guns a-blazin' to shoot copies of JACK WAKES UP onto the literary seashores of American bookstores? (That's the shelves, I guess.) And help JACK WAKES UP climb up and dominate the San Francisco Chronicle bestseller list? Join us: Armáda České republiky!

Hear the promo! Play the promo anywhere you can to join the Armada!