It is totally ‘go time’ for Genius de Milo, the sequel to Finders Keepers.

The print version is finished, produced, and ready. The e-book is juuuuust about there.

I’m also in the process of lining up various convention appearances, book reviews, and blog posts to promote the newest book in my sci-fi backpacking trilogy, and if all goes according to plan, Genius de Milo will be officially launched within two more weeks.

So how’s that for busy?!

I’m also taking lots of notes for the third and final book in the Finders Keepers trilogy, which I’m hoping to have in your hands next year. So when Genius de Milo hits the stands, you can be rest assured that there’s more coming right behind it.

In between I’ll be writing my contribution to the Crazy 8 Press anthology Pangaea, spearheaded by our illustrious co-founder Michael Jan Friedman, who presided over the successful (woo hoo!!) Kickstarter campaign funding our project.

But for me it’s pretty much all cosmic lunacy all the time, with the Finders Keepers trilogy consuming most of my writing hours. Continue reading

It was PhilCon, a convention that is, ironically, held in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. I was there for the first time, one of several author guests, and in between panels I was wandering the dealers’ room. I checked out the various tables, admiring weapons and memorabilia and other geek merchandise, but not surprisingly most of my attention went to the books. Not those sold by booksellers as much as the ones offered by authors and small presses. Those I stopped to examine more closely, looking over the covers, reading the back copy, flipping through the interiors. I’m a graphic designer and a book layout artists as well as a writer, so on the one hand I was looking at the books for their production value, but I was also curious what other people were writing around me.

One table had only a single book available, but its cover was enough to intrigue me—it was a frenetic scene, showing several figures pushing and shoving and climbing over each other in front of an island sunset, each striving for a glowing jar that floated just out of reach. Finders Keepers, the cover proclaimed. “A novel by Russ Colchamiro.” Continue reading

You wanted to know more about us, but you know what they say … be careful for what you wish for. You might surely get it! What that warning in mind, here are 8 Things you Need to Know About Crazy 8 Press Author Russ Colchamiro (but might have been afraid to ask, or might be traumatized by, now that you know them).

1- Russ’ first work of fiction came in the 3rd grade. It was a King Arthur-esque action/mystery tale, with the evil King Quenpor. Wow. Was it bad.

2- During his student teaching tenure in Buffalo, NY, Russ taught five classes a day, all 11th grade English. He didn’t meet two of his students because they were out — on maternity leave — each for their second child.

3- A one-time Wiffle ball aficionado, one summer afternoon, in front of his house in Merrick, NY, on Long Island, Russ was on the mound. Pitching, he chucked a pretty good slider, which his buddy smacked over his head. Russ dashed after the batted ball, across the street, head craned in the air. He leapt, to make an incredible basket catch, Willie Mays-style, but his foot hit the curb, hard. When he came down, Russ landed on his wrist, to brace himself. He wound up badly spraining his left wrist, which required a splint, and broke the big toe on his right foot, putting him on the DL for 6 weeks. The first recorded injury in Wiffle Ball history. Continue reading