Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Witless Explaination


Here's a little story you may not have ever wanted or needed:

Over the years I've used the screen name, login, email address, and now ever the website "witlesslackey". I also use derivatives of "witlesslackey" (witlessfiction, witlessgraphics, witlessart, etc.) for many of my creative endeavors.

I've been asked several times of the years where "witlesslackey" comes from, so I figured I could put it here on my blog and lay it to rest forever.


Short answer?

William Shakespeare. That’s where it comes from.


Long answer?


From "Troilus and Cressida" by William Shakespeare, to be precise.

Okay... here's the long and boring tale...

Somewhere in late 1999 or early 2000 I was convinced by several key people in my life that I needed, if I was to survive as a normal human being, to have AOL Instant Messenger (or AIM).

When I began the sign up process for the service it asked me for a screen name. I don’t recall what sill combination of numbers and letters I used to make a silly acronym than only I understood. What I do remember was that no one ever got it, and that bothered me.

One evening, about a week later, I was sitting at my desk and flipping through the internet… as I too often do. While doing this I happened upon a set of instructions for online mad libs. It told me to take a book off the nearest shelf. As luck would have it there was one next to my head, and the closest book was “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare”.

The next step was to flip to a certain page number and count to a certain word. Counting off I got to this:

"Behold, distraction, frenzy and amazement,
Like witless antics, one another meet,
And all cry, Hector! Hector's dead! O Hector!"

Then the next instruction was to flip to another page number that it specified and count to a certain word. This time I got this:

"Hence, broker-lackey! ignomy and shame
Pursue thy life, and live aye with thy name!"

The instructions told me to put them together for a character name… so I did. And I liked it so much that I kept it long after that game. I made it my new AIM screen name, then my live-journal, my blog, my email, and nearly everything else.

There ya go… it may be dull, boring, or silly… but so what? That’s where the name "Witlesslackey" comes from.

-Dennis Sharpe
Aka the "Witlesslackey"

Monday, April 25, 2011

Goodreads.com

How is it that I haven't known about this place before. It's awesome. Now I'm just waiting for them to verify that I am actually me. In the meantime...

I've found a lot of books that I really want to read, and a lot of authors I'd like to know more about. This is a lot less frustrating than my daytime activity of finding people who are interested in what I have to say.

If you haven't been to Goodreads.com you should definitely go there. t's like Facebook for books, and well worth your time... I intend to be there a lot, personally.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Foot Tapping

Amazon has the kindle and the paperback versions of Blood & Spirits up, and they are selling. I'm just obsessing a little on getting the paperback version up on Amazon.co.uk, they have the kindle version but don't have a date for me on the paperback.

I'm likely just being impatient, but I can't help it.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Blood & Spirits

'Blood & Spirits' is the first book in 'The Coming Storm Trilogy'... a paranormal fiction series following the lives of Vampires, Ghosts, and Zombies in modern Middle America.

The Back Blurb for the book is :
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Small-town life can be hard for a dead girl...

For Veronica Fischer the night to night life of a bloodsucking madam in Middle America is tough enough before she adopts Rachel Gregory, an eight year old ghost.

After her house is set on fire, and Rachel disappears, all signs point to foul play. When she finds herself with a hit out on her unlife, and warrants for her arrest, it becomes clear she's going to need help.

Now she has to contend with horny zombies, violent spirits, and murderous grave robbers if she's ever going to find Rachel and discover the awful truth of the coming storm.

A raucous ride through the dangerous lives of the lecherous undead.
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Book Two in this series, 'Distant Thunder' is slated for release August 9th, 2011, and Book Three, 'Driving Rain' should shortly follow around November 22nd, 2011.

With this trilogy I'm starting to publish a paranormal fiction series I've been working on for some time. I'm currently writing book 17 in the overall series and I have plans for at least two more books after that one.

If you have the time, you should pick up 'Blood & Spirits' and give it a read. It's the first steps down a long, dark road with me... I look forward to seeing you there...