Craig's bookshelf: read

The Old Man and the Sea
The Power That Preserves
The One Tree
The Wounded Land
The Darkslayer - Fantasy/Adventure
Conan
The Halfling's Gem
Streams of Silver
Billy Budd, Sailor
The Legacy
Watchmen
Dragons of Autumn Twilight
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
Ender's Game
A Gathering of Heroes
Lord Foul's Bane
Dragons of Spring Dawning
Dragons of Winter Night
Time of the Twins
Forgotten Realms: Homeland


Craig's favorite books »
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Jun 18, 2012

ATTENTION : NEW POSTINGS MOVED TO FACEBOOK!!!

THE DARKSLAYER REPORT on FACEBOOK
CLICK THIS LINK!

Now that I have been extremely busy writing and editing, I have found myself completely unable to keep up with blogging. Hence, I am going to just put my thoughts, reviews, updates, etc... on one of my Facebook pages.  For me, it's less time consuming than blogging.  I'll be putting out a lot more information about movies, books and so on, like I used to do in the past. So, if you happen to check this blog from time to time, please like The Darkslayer Report by Craig, to see any news. I know there are many of you that abhore Facebook, and I respect that. But, Facebook works better for me at this time.

I also like being able to post pictures and videos on a site where people can go and look at them. I hope to generate more dialogue as well and branch out. We'll see how it goes, but for now, using facebook like this is better than doing nothing at all.

Thanks for the support,

Craig Halloran

May 18, 2012

LEGENDARY MARVEL AND DC ARTIST ERNIE CHAN PASSES AWAY AT 71


Ernie Chan passed away on May 16th, 2012 at the age of 71, a day before his 72nd B-Day. I had the pleasure of working with Ernie over the past 2 years on The Darkslayer books. Simply said, he was awesome! I told him about the time I lived in the Philippines for 2 years in the service and my long history of Filipino friends. He said that he was a ‘Pinoy’.

Ernie worked for Marvel and DC comics for over 3 decades. His titles included The Hulk, Conan the Barbarian, Savage Sword of Conan (my personal favorite), Superman, Batman, Karate Kid, Power Man, Kung-Fu Fighter, Iron Fist, Doctor Strange, Kull the Conqueror, Claw the Destroyer,  and many others (See Wikipedia link). I actually have vivid memories of his works from the 70’s because I was just so drawn to his art. He is the reason I bought many weaker titles like Karate Kid and Claw. WOW!

Ernie Chan was also known as Ernie Chau on many issues as there was a mix up with his paperwork when he immigrated to America. But he is Chan.

I came to work with Ernie by chance when I was working on book covers for The Darkslayer. I wasn’t really having any luck when I decided to try and find an artist. When I came across Ernie’s  website www.erniechan.com  and it said that he did commissions I got excited. I sent him an email and when I heard back from him I was on Cloud 9. To think that THE Ernie Chan was going to draw my characters was an honor. It really didn’t take much and his inks were rolling. I’d send in a short, but detailed, description and he would send me back a sketch (PDF), I’d give some more information, and he’d nail it. BOOM it was done! I will never, ever understand how he did that. We were in sync and the artwork just kept rolling. To this day, out of over 20 pieces he did for me, I can’t tell you which one is my favorite. I just feel so blessed to have worked with him.

I offered to write a short book about my friend, his career and works, and here is what he said.

Craig,

   I will ship out the package to you tomorrow.   I dunno about writing my Biography. I am sure you are very capable of doing it. But I find my life to be very boring, I spend the majority of my life in front of the drawing board. I hardly had any adventure what so ever. I appreciate your proposing to do it,but no thanks. At least not in the near future.

Thank you,

Ernie

Even though that shows little, it says a lot. One thing I wished I would have asked him is if anything inspired him at all. Where did all of that talent come from? What characters did he like most, if any at all. I am sure some of his friends and colleagues can answer that, but I would be curious to know. I am just glad he told me that he really enjoyed and looked forward to working on my characters.  I always certain  to thank him and told him how awesome he was.

Recently, I emailed Ernie when I read on the Conan website that Tony DeZuniga wasn’t doing well. I asked him if they were friends. He said he knew about it, but said that his health wasn’t very well either. He said he’d tell me about it later. He didn’t say what was wrong, so I had no idea it was cancer. I told him I’d be checking on him and asked if he had friends and family nearby, but I didn’t hear back. I emailed him on May 16th and asked how he was doing. No reply. I had a pretty bad feeling, but I didn’t really want to think the worst. I figured maybe he was in a hospital or just very sick. Then I get up this morning and see on Facebook where he died.  Man, I really can’t complain too much about Social Media. We can really find out what happens to people awfully quick, good or bad, unfortunately.

Other things. I know Ernie was working on a little skit of his own that he posted on Facebook called Tof Kooky. It was really good. A humorous series of one page art of a sexy Asian girl and her dog. I didn’t see his posts anymore and I asked him about it a few of months ago and he said that he didn’t have the time for Facebook.  I can’t find any of those images to post either, but it was a very original idea.  Wait a minute, he posted them on comicartfans.com.  Here is the link and you can check out more of his other commissioned work as well.   TOF KOOKY

There will never be another Ernie Chan.  He is truly one of the last of his kind. I will miss you my friend.


















Mar 7, 2012

THE DARKSLAYER VOLUME THREE IS FINISHED!!!!

That's right, DS V3 is done (written not edited)!  Of course, many of you probably didn't realize that DS V2 is out on sale right now either. It is, go take a look  at Amazon and Barnes.  So, what's the blog about?

Well first, let me say that my blogging has been nothing but a craphole. I've not been doing it. I've been too busy writing. Here's what I wanted to talk about though ... my goal over the past 4 months. My goal was to write a complete 120,000 word fantasy novel in 4 months, 120 days. I started this venture on November 1st, 2011 and I finished March 2nd 2012. So yes ... I DID IT!!!

The main thing was proving to myself that I could stay on task and do it in 4 months. That's 1000 words a day of my life I pledged. I only spent about 1-2 hours per day doing it, maybe some extra time on the weekends. For the most part my life was normal, of course don't ask my wife that, she seems to believe I am doing this all of the time. If I was I wouldn't be watching TV, playing video games with my son and taking him to cub scouts. Women, wives in particular, can exaggerate. I maintained my normal life style and I am proud of that. Additionally, I did it with all of the distractions surrounding me. I don't hide in some dark room and close the doors and lock the windows. I wish I could sometimes, but I take pride in doing it through those distractions : the cats, dogs, my son and my wife, all of which need me in some capacity.  The book thing is great, but family is by far the most important thing, well that and football.

So my message is, if you are writing a book, you have to do it through all of the distractions. If you are dedicated you can do it, you just block out the distractions and don't make any excuses. Give up something like TV and all of those sporting events. Trust me, I got alot done by not watching Mountaineer and Steeler games. That's the beautiful thing, you can go back and watch it later on DVR in 1/8th of the time. And if you already know your team lost, then screw it.

Writing can be fun, but don't let it take over your life, because then what happens if you've put in all of that hard work and your book sucks?