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In many ways, I’m sort of a jerk.  Some of those ways have proved quite beneficial.  I have a remarkable ability to hear stories of terrible tragedy in the lives of others and then wander off wondering if I should have peanut butter and jelly crackers for lunch or chips and salsa.  It is not my memory that sucks.  It is just that reality has never really seemed, well, all that real to me.  But more like a book or a movie.

Life is real to me when I am in the story.  In the moment.  While I am listening to the heart-rending tale I’ll cry my head off right along with the teller.  But once I close that book and move on to the next…  I guess the old expression “out of sight, out of mind” really does sum me up.

This sort of “professional distance” (I used to hear lots of horrible stories and real life nightmares regularly as a part of my job) has allowed David Mark Brown, common citizen, to roam the earth pretty care-free.  Hurrah.  But as a novelist it is death.

Read moreNot keeping a professional distance

I’ve been promised big money when my book deal goes through.  From a reliable source – myself.  And my slice of the pie keeps getting bigger.  Today I worked hard to earn my 2% as head internet marketing specialist and another 2% as publicist.  I’ve also been working for flat fee (on futures of course) as social media consultant and graphic designer.  I’ve promised myself over $3000 in editing fees.  I even gave myself a friendly little sum for fashion consulting (my hair was getting a bit too long for writing speculative fiction, after all).  I have a friend who offers protection and enforcement services for free, so that’s a pretty good deal (writers don’t tend to be the toughest people, but we do piss others off a lot).  I was paying my wife for life coaching, but I had to fire her and take on the job myself after it got in the way of her bread-winning.

Read moreWorking in Pajamas on Promissory Commission

This is an old, old post! written before the first book in this series was published (now the first two are available). For something more current click here. Thanks!***

What if natural fibers like hemp had won supremacy over petroleum in the 1930’s?  What if the marijuana tax stamp act of 1937 had never been passed?  What if cannabis had never been dubbed marijuana, as a racial slur against Mexicans?  Our fuel would be ethanol. Our textiles would be blends of hemp and cotton rather than cotton and polyester.  Our paints, plastics, cosmetics, food and countless other consumables would be petroleum free.  What about our path out of the great depression?  What about our entrance into WWII?  Would the war have even happened?

Welcome to the world of reefer punk, a series of alternative history novels revealing not only a fictional past, but a still possible future.

In Fist Full of Reefer (the first in the series), Chancho, a poor dirt farmer on the Texas side of the border, struggles during the late 1920’s to eek a living from the dirt while impressing the busty, young daughter of the nearest town’s sheriff.

Read moreWelcome to ReEfeR PUnK