Make your own Pocket Coyote!

Enjoy, crafting superheroes! All that stands between you and your very own Pocket Coyote is a couple of hours of sewing ...
Pocket Coyote Pattern

Meet Rae and Trevor!

Well, electronically.

Once again, I find myself in need of a little online noise—traffic on the blog and Facebook page, people reposting and commenting on the trailer videos, etc. Once again, I can’t tell you why I need that noise, for the usual reasons. And once again, I’m willing to bribe you to have fun. Does it get any better than this?

We’re coming up on Thanksgiving, so Rae’s off school for the week (or maybe just playing hooky again—it’s hard to tell the difference). Trevor, of course, does not go to school except to tinker in the computer lab and eavesdrop on the guidance counselor’s office. Captain Catastrophe is visiting family back East, so his next nefarious plot will probably focus on TSA screeners in Atlanta, and therefore he’s not much of a threat to L.A. right now. The forces of evil are mostly either trying to get their Christmas-death-spree shopping done early or still putting the finishing touches on turkey-based death rays.

In short, my heroes are just a little bit bored. So I’m going to let them out to play with all of you.

For the next week, Rae, Trevor, and my other characters will be answering fan questions on this blog and on the Masks Facebook page. So if there’s something you absolutely have to know about the world of Masks, this is your chance to ask the source. Have you ever wondered where the hell Rae’s parents are, and why they don’t seem to mind her running around in the dark beating people up? You can ask her, and she’ll tell you. Or maybe you’d like to know what the Masked Rider does when he’s not delivering cryptic warnings and casually foiling robberies with spray paint. He’s got an answer for that, although you might have to get Nathan Fillion to translate. And Trevor’s got so many secrets I know you’ll have questions for him (How did he end up a superhero’s sidekick? What did he do for two years on the road? Where did the creepy voices in his head come from?), and maybe he’ll even give you a straight answer to one or two. The coyote will be available for questions, too, although of course you can’t always trust what a trickster says.

So if you’ve ever wanted to know something about one of the Masks characters … or even something about the world (Where did superheroes come from? Why didn’t new masks come into L.A. after the purge killed off the old ones? Do superheroes often fall in love with each other, or are Rae and Trevor an exception?), this is your chance.

To ask a question, leave a comment on this blog entry or a post on the book’s Facebook page (see the links in the column to the right), addressing the question to the relevant party. (Example: “Coyote: How do you stay ahead of Animal Control?”) I’ll get back to you with the character’s responses throughout the week. (“I iz wily. And I bitez thru truck tires.”) The best questions and responses will be reprinted in an interview on this blog later.

Now let’s make some noise!

New trailers!

Enjoy, guys! You've earned it!

All the MASKS stories so far, in one convenient place.

Here are the three short stories I’ve published so far in the Masks universe. You can download them through Scribd if you like, or just read them here. While most of the action in Masks obviously takes place in the books, side stories like these give me a chance to develop my characters and world in a shorter format … and they give you a chance to see what those characters and that world are like before the book actually comes out.

Yes, longtime readers, I know that I have technically published four stories—but I’m not counting “The Curtain” as strictly canonical because I’ve changed some stuff in the plot and characters since then. (For one thing, we now have a completely different story on how Trevor first saw Rae …)

And yes, VERY longtime readers, I know that I published about a hundred short stories about these characters between 1998 and 2005. I’m not counting them, either … until I decide I am.

The first story in the cycle, “Motion Capture”, features Rae and Trevor doing their thing in their native habitats. Specifically, Rae gets in trouble with her school’s mean girls and then gets in a supervillain’s face, and Trevor tries to do the right thing and gets duct-taped to a wall and very nearly lobotomized.

Motion Capture

The second story, “Zephyr Street,” takes place after “Motion Capture” and features Rae solving the murder of one of the dozens of masks killed in the superhero purge a decade back. The case takes her to a sunny little neighborhood with a big, dark secret …

Zephyr Street

And the most recent story, “The Buddy System,” features Trevor shortly after he arrives in Los Angeles after the events of “Motion Capture” as he tries to evade his pursuers and protect a little boy who’s wiggled into the wrong place at the wrong time ….

The Buddy System

New short story: "The Buddy System"

The story is here! It's up! And it features previously unreleased art by Nicole Le! (She tells me it's a study for a painting, based on a picture I took of the Olympic Boulevard bridge ... somewhere in there this story developed.)

Remember, you can still enter the fan-art and recruitment contests--they run until September 25!

And now, I'm going to go take the rest of my birthday off. Turning off the cell phone ... NOW!
The Buddy System

Meet (and win) the Pocket Coyote!

I finally finished making the Pocket Coyote last night. He and his twin will be the prizes in the TWO current contests! That's right, there's two! Did you forget?

You can enter the fan art contest by submitting any kind of fan art--drawings, photos, videos, recordings, whatever. Post the art, or a link to it, on the wall of the Masks Facebook page (there's a link in the column to the right of this blog entry). As long as the art is 1) about Masks; 2) non-obscene (PG-13, please!); and 3) not a violation of anybody else's copyright (no cameos by Superman or the X-Men), it's eligible. The winner of the fan art contest will be decided by a fan vote on this blog ... and yes, you can vote for yourself. Although I'm sure you'd like your friends to vote for you, too ...

Which brings me to the fan recruitment contest! You can win a Pocket Coyote by inviting your friends to "like" Masks on Facebook. When your friends add the page, post their names on the page's Wall (or have them post their names, along with a note saying you invited them). Whoever recruits the most people this way (and isn't Shelley, who won last time) gets a Pocket Coyote!

The Pocket Coyote is 100% machine washable and handmade by the author. No two Pocket Coyotes are exactly alike. If you want to give him to a kid, he's probably safe for any kid that can handle a beanie baby (although he might offer the kid a faustian bargain when you're not looking, so watch for telltale signs of suddenly achieving a superheroic destiny). If you want to keep him for yourself, he can probably be trained to do something, but I have no idea what.

Why am I doing all this? The usual explanation applies--the more fans I get on Facebook, the more traffic I get on this blog, and the more attention I get generally, the better the chance that Masks will eventually get published. So if you want to read the book, please help me make some noise, Pocket Coyote or no. I'll probably post the Pocket Coyote pattern eventually, too, for those of you who are into that.

Oh, and did I mention ...

... he fits in a pocket!

Introducing the Backpack Coyote!

That's right, the plushie pattern is here! Now I just need a name for my finished prototype ...
Backpack Coyote Pattern