Last Day.

Goodbye 2019. You were a grand year for me. Oh sure besides my writing and publishing endeavors, there has been some personal setbacks, but nothing that can't be recovered from. As an author/publisher, I believe you have to learn to keep your personal life separate from that of writer.

How you present yourself on social media is the key. On my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram I try not to be political, or be too verbal on my views. Oh sure I believe a certain way but the last thing I want to do is try and persuade someone to think the way I do, and in turn I don't want then to inflict their ideas on me. I'm an older guy, my mind is set, and doubt anyone can change it. A good writer friend of mine has often says
, we are showmen, and we need to be actors to our fans, and readers. Which is partially true.

To know about me, is to read what I write. I pour a lot of me in my stories and that's the best way to know who Charles F. Millhouse is. As we go into the new year it's time for me to refocus and present myself in a way that people will be intrigued enough to pick up my work and discover who I am.

Come on 2020, bring it on. 

2019 My Year in Publishing

Storytelling has been my life for many years. It's in my blood. Even when I didn't know squat about story structure, POV, or how to show and not tell. I remember sitting on the front porch at my childhood home with my friend Paul, telling our corny superhero stories, not knowing then that I would make a life out of entertaining people with writing. It's been a long hard road, but its been worth every struggle, every disappointment, every letdown and every triumph.

The year has come full circle and as I look back on 2019 I’m proud at what I have accomplished in my publishing career. Being a full time writer has always been a dream of mine. Making that dream a reality has been hard work. But it’s hard work that has paid off.

Over the last year I’ve traveled all over, meeting readers like you who have told me they’ve enjoyed my books, and that is totally worth the aforementioned hard work. I've gown my mailing list (which you can expect an end of the year newsletter next week.), and I've published two books, Captain Hawklin and the Shadow Men and Absolution: A Novel in the Serena Darkwood Adventures, this year.

I would like to thank all the people who have made 2019 a blast. First to you, the reader, who have supported my books, met me at cons, and told others about my work - you are my inspiration, and the reason I sit on the keyboard everyday. Thank You!

To my fellow writers:
Brian K Morris
David Beem
Amy Hale
Cathy Jackson
Marlin Williams
John Bruening
The list goes on and on. You guys rise me up when I'm down, and there have many, many days like that. If it weren't for all my writer and creator friends I might have given up a long time ago.

And last, but never least, to the love of my life, my wife Mary Ann. You are my rock, my muse. Your positivity never surprises me. You always see a light when things get a little dark.

2020 is upon us. I go into the new year excited at the prospects. Happy New Year Everyone.

Charles F. Millhouse is the author of twenty books in the Science fiction, Action Adventure Genres. you can find his books on Amazon.com and on social media at the links below. 

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram 

Being Nostalgic or That Old Sweater That Keeps Me Warm

I was cleaning today and came across an old sweater my wife bought me years and years ago. I hadn’t worn it in quite some time, and it’s a bit tattered, so I figured why should I keep it, and I tossed it in the garbage bag with the rest of the trash. After an hour or so, the idea of throwing this unwearable piece of clothing away didn’t sit well with me. Sure, I wasn’t going to go out in it, and I might not even wear it around the house – but I couldn’t throw it away.

There’s a lot of memories wrapped up in that piece of cloth. Besides the fact that my wife bought it for me – probably from Christmas past – I wore it in a picture with my son when he was four or five (he’s twenty-seven now). When you get older, memories are apart of us, even more then when we are young. It connects us to different times. Some good, some bad, but nonetheless a different part of our lives.

Being nostalgic is something someone does when their kids are older, and moved out, when there are fewer days ahead then behind. Its like magic, a spell cast on a thing that keeps us grounded.

It amazes me how clothing, whatnots and trinkets become apart of who you are, and who you were. Sometimes they are all we have of a loved one no longer with us. In many ways they are time capsules to the past – a moment in time that lives only in us.

I’m sure I’m not the only person to have this feeling of separation when we part with something as simple as an old sweater. It’s something that keeps your memories warm, and close to your heart. Maybe that’s the reason I’ve kept tools that were my dad’s, and pots and pans that were my mom’s. Its all we have left of them. In the same regards that old sweater keeps me connected to my son when he was a boy. Sure, I see him every week, but I see the man, not the child he was. It’s something unexplainable, but that old piece of cloth... it keeps me warm.  

The Writer's Community... or How I got off track.

Hello everyone, as I write this blog post I have Brian K Morris’ Facebook show blaring on my phone. It’s a great resource for writers, artists and creators of all kinds. He has his fingers on the pulse of the indie industry, like upcoming shows, ideas for promotions, and who to contact in indie publishing. If you don’t know Brian, check him out on Facebook. And, even if Brian doesn’t know, maybe someone commenting during the show will.

That’s how the indie community is, helpful, resourceful and there to prop you up when you feel alone. Most every writer feels like that a lot of the time, I know I do. Even though I have the love and support of my wife, she really doesn’t know how nerve wracking it can be when you sit there at the computer trying to pour your soul out on the screen in front of you. Writers write all the time, fulltime and part time writers alike. I work a forty hour a week job, but that doesn’t stop me from creating all the time. Wishing I was home writing. Its frustrating, but the indie community lifts me up, and it eases the pain between writing times.

Writing is more of a commitment then most non-writers know. But it’s a love for the written word that keeps me going. And I love to tell the kind of stories I want to read. Either it be pulp, space adventure, or supernatural. When I started this incredible journey of writing in 1999, I had no idea I would get this far. It’s the readers, and fellow writers who have fueled my drive and to be honest I have run a little off the track as of late, but I’m narrowing my resolve and refocusing for the future. I have ideas, and plans that I have let fall to the wayside - but I intend to focus, focus, focus until I reach my goals. (more on that later). 

It's a journey I'm nowhere near ending, and I hope you'll come along with me, I sure would like to have you. So, I hope if you’ve taken time to read this blog post, you’ll leave a comment below, and tell me how you came to be here, and while you’re here please take time to look around my site, check out my books, you might find something here you’ll like.

I plan on making this blog weekly, which has always been my intent, but this time I'm going to make sure it gets done. So untill next week... Thank you.

Charles F. Millhouse is the author of nineteen books in the New Pulp, Science Fiction and Supernatural genres, including the Captain Hawklin Pulp Series, The Origin Trilogy, The Serena Darkwood Adventures, and many others.

Follow me on FB www.facebook.com/writermillhouse

Absolution: The Audiobook

Here is a 4 minute clip of the upcoming audiobook of Absolution: A Novel in the Serena Darkwood Adventures.