HEROES IN THE NIGHT BOOK COVER!

Plus PRE-ORDER INFORMATION!

This is a proud day for me and I'm pleased to be able to release the cover of my book Heroes in the Night: Inside the Real Life Superhero Movement, a secret I've guarded as vigorously as a superhero's secret identity up until now. Here it is:

The photos, l-r, top-bottom: Seattle superhero Phoenix Jones (with myself in the background making an Alfred Hitchcock/ Stan Lee style cameo appearance) Milwaukee RLSH The Watchman, early RLSH prototype Terrifica, who patrolled bars in Manhattan, and Zetaman, of Portland, Oregon.

More book info:
Publication date: October 1, 2013, Chicago Review Press.
272 pages. 22 black and white photos, 25 color photos, 10 black and white illustrations.
Paperback: $16.95 (CAN $18.95)
E-pub/Adobe pdf/ Kindle: $13.99

Want to pre-order a copy?

Amazon link HERE

Barnes & Noble link HERE

Powell's link HERE

Independent Publishing Group link HERE (book description is up, but not pre-order option)

Information for Indiebound coming soon!

I've also set up my Goodreads author page, so please stop by. I'd be honored if you'd hit the "become a fan" button and add Heroes in the Night to your "to read" list. My Goodreads page is HERE

I'll be posting more updates as I get them and this summer the blog will swing back into action with some new Real Life Superhero profiles, a book excerpt, books news, and more!

The Challengers 2012 Christmas Mission

The Challengers, with special guest appearance by Santa Claus.

The Challengers’ annual holiday toy and art supply drive was a success. Through a donation box set up at Blush and an in-person appearance by The Watchman, Blackbird, and Night Vision at Brewed Cafe, the team collected donations.  that benefits the Gingerbread House (in West Bend) and Meta House (here in Riverwest). It was a rainy and cold day, but they stuck it out and collected donations of toys, art supplies, and cash. All together, they ended up getting a couple boxes worth of donations- good work, guys! 

Online fundraising (all monetary funds will be used to buy more toys and art supplies) will remain open until Friday, December 21 here: https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/6Om35

Happy holidays!

The Challengers 2012 Christmas Charity Mission

Author's note: This is the third holiday season that I've helped out (mainly with press and e-mails) The Challengers- a local Milwaukee group of  RLSH. Each year they try to gather donations of toys and art supplies to donate to two charities. We had a good success with it in 2010. 2011 was a little disappointing, but we're hoping 2012 will be the strongest year yet. All the info for this year's event is below. Happy holidays!

Photo by Lacy Landre

LOCAL “REAL LIFE SUPER HEROES” ON A CHRISTMAS CHARITY MISSION

Superheroes to appear in person December 15 at Brewed Cafe

-December 5, 2012

Milwaukee’s team of “Real Life Super Heroes”-- The Challengers--  are once again working on their annual Christmas charity mission. Like the last two holiday seasons, they’ll be making an in-person appearance to collect toys and art supplies for two great local charities.

The Gingerbread House is a charity in West Bend that collects toys for low income families that need help buying gifts. Meta House, in Milwaukee, is a rehabilitation center for women and their families that has a need for toys and art supplies for their art therapy programs.

The Challengers are using their time and flashy appearance to help attract attention for these charities and collect donations for them. Monetary donations will be used to buy more supplies to donate.

This year, there are multiple ways you can get a donation to The Challengers:

In person: The Challengers will be making an in-person appearance at Brewed Cafe (1208 E. Brady Street) on Saturday, December 15, from 11-4. They will be accepting donations of toys, art supplies, and cash. This is a great chance to meet the “Real Life Super Heroes” in person and help them out with their cause.

There is also a donation box set up at Blush Beauty Boutique (249 N. Water Street) from now until December 15^th where donations can be dropped off anytime during business hours (Mon: 11-5, Tu-Sat: 10-6).

In addition, there is a page set up on Fundrazr where you can donate money online: https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/6Om35

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Book Complete!

That picture is of my first completed book,Heroes in the Night. I got on the train to Chicago on Thursday and handed it in to my publisher.

Inside that file bin is a lot of work. There is a manuscript (14 Chapters, close to 300 pages) as well as all of the photos and art on a disc and hard copy, signed permission forms and material for the publicity department. 

My first interview for the book was with The Watchman, March 1, 2009. My last was a follow up phone call with Phoenix Jones, November 11, 2012. In between I did hundreds of hours of interviews, research, and field work. I also read a lot of comic books.

My travels for the book took me out on the streets of Milwaukee, Minneapolis/ St. Paul, Rochester, MN, New Bedford, MA, New York, Washington DC, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and San Diego. I revised the book many times.

What’s next? Well, first I am going to take a day off. The book isn’t actually done, now it is in the hands of the fine folks of Chicago Review Press. They’ll slowly be going through with a line editor, the graphic design dept., and a copy editor. I’ll be working with them on any revisions they’d like to see. 

Then, when it’ s closer to publication date, I’ll be talking with them about publicity, media appearances, a book trailer, running excerpts, and events. That will be the fun part– I’ll actually have the book in my hand.

Meanwhile, I’m going to spend the next month or so working on catching up with smaller things- I have a few articles I’m working on that I need to wrap up. After I’ve caught up, I will be writing a solid beginning base for my next book.

But that, my friends, is a different story.

I'm going to take a couple months hiatus on this blog, but I'll be back in 2013 with some book updates and new Hero Profiles. See you then!

Mutual Kombat: Fight!

Its been awhile since I reported on news coming out of Seattle. Phoenix Jones and his crew, the Rain City Superhero Movement, have been running into a stream of street level confrontations lately.

The most dramatic of these happened in the early hours of this morning. The team intervened in an altercation between some men trying to stop another person's vehicle. The men then turned their attention to the RCSM and an angry confrontation started.

"You know Washington is a mutual combat state, if you'd like to agree to fight we can do that if you'd like to," Jones suggests at the 2:05 mark in the video below. He goes on to explain that  "mutual combat" apparently allows people to fight until one of them hits the ground. I'm no legal expert, but this claim seems to be legit because when police arrived on the scene, they allow the mutual combat to proceed (after trying to talk them out of it).

At the 6:25 mark the fight begins. Jones has removed his famous rubber cowl, and the two men begin to circle each other. After a couple of kicks, Jones' opponent attempts a choke-hold but Jones counters with a right hook and knocks the man out. He then quickly exits from the fighting area and at the command of police leaves the scene. The aftermath-- well, you can just watch for yourself. (NSFW-- loud obscenity, racist comments, total chaos)


On a less combative and more congratulatory note, Phoenix Jones' wife Purple Reign was honored by the University of Seattle for her work on the Purple Reign Campaign, which raised awareness about domestic abuse and money for a women's shelter.

HERO PROFILE #94: Crimson Canuck

Operates out of: Windsor, Ontario, Canada

Team affiliation: Trillium Guards of Ontario

Activities: Patrols, homeless handouts, charity events

Current missions: "This weekend I'll be doing the "Superhero Walk" with Matthew House Windsor, a program that helps refugees who escape to Canada.

On Halloween I'm teaming up with Rogue Gallery Comics (a local comic book store) to go to a local hospital and hand out comic books and goodies to children who can't trick-or-treat."

Author's notes: The Crimson Canuck was featured in a recent article by Darryl Gallinger for The Lance, the student newspaper for University of Windsor. Gallinger also quotes me in the article, which you can read HERE.

After the article was published, I got a friendly e-mail from the Crimson Canuck, introducing himself and talking about his RLSH goals, which led to this rare Hero Profile update. Hero Profiles will now be on hiatus for a few months, but will return in 2013 as the publishing date for Heroes in the Night draws closer. For now-- a salute to the maple leaf, Darryl Gallinger for the write up and to the Crimson Canuck, one of the RLSH's most devoted Canadian brethren! 

Knight Owl doc clip

Hey folks, not a lot of blogging lately because I've been working pretty intensely on the book.

I thought I would share this, though-- director Matt Harrison has been working on his doc about famous RLSH of the Pacific Northwest and just release this clip starring Knight Owl:


I'm quite familiar with this character as I met him four different times in four different cities.

1. The Superheroes Anonymous 3 Conference, New Bedford, September, 2009
2. Winter Olympic Meet Up, Vancouver, Feb. 2010
3. HOPE 2011, San Diego, July 2011
4. Infamous trip to Pacific Northwest, Portland, October 2011

The doc's website is: www.citizenheroesthemovie.com

Ok, back to work!