The Compassion Experiment

Corrosion of Conformity - Opera House, 2018 It's the first week of March, which means I can take a week off writing/editing and laying out book #3 of 12.  Book #3 is a kids adventure story called Moose and Turkey. I'm a music nerd and proud of it! 2018 is going to be a fantastic year for live music, I'm super pumped about it, pumped enough to write a blog about it, ya dig? This year I'll see as many bands/concerts as I can afford to. Concerts aren't cheap but it's important to support art and music, without culture humanity would lose its essence, its soul. One of the books I'll be releasing this year is called My Wasted Youth, which is a collection of recollections from the 200+ concerts I've seen and 300+ bands I've witnessed playing live. That number is going to bloat big-time this year because three months in, there are tons of concerts I want to see, it's crazy! I'll see as many as I can because this kind of thing doesn't...

It only took 16 years to get this book out, which is a real testament to my skills of procrastination. It also only took a dozen or so people to turn this absurd idea into reality: Cover Art by Jason Todd , Illustrations by James Donnelly and Jason Todd , Book Layout by Steve Abbott.  The book was edited with the keen eyes of: Steve Abbott , Ian S. Robertson , Maria Yates , Erma Odrach , Kirsten Dressler , Frank Beghin and  Kasia Sobilo , to name but a few. So, sure, it says the book is by Stud!o M!ke - whoever the hell that is - in reality it took the help of more than a dozen people to turn this story out. So, a gigantic THANKS!! goes out to all of them. So, what's the story about? The description goes like this: "A powerful force, the Spark, has fallen into the hands of evil insects who desire nothing more than the total annihliation of the human race. It is up to Deegan the Sparrow and his friends from POE (Peace On Earth) to fight this devastating enemy and ...

Holy Smokes, Tofu! I actually did it! Well, despite my total incompetence when it comes to computers and technology, I was able to get 12 Books in 12 Months? uploaded and it is NOW AVAILABLE! You can buy it at www.smashwords.com  the link is:   https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/MikePrzysiezny   I've also uploaded the book to Amazon.ca  and it is now available in the library, the link is:    https://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Stud%21o+M%21ke   The hardest part of this process was learning the publishing software - Vellum - and figuring out how to get the book available for purchase. The reason I used Smashwords is because it makes the book available at every bookseller except Amazon. So, between making it available on Smashwords and Amazon, I should have all the avenues to sell the book covered. But I guess we'll see. I don't expect this book to be successful necessarily, what I'm really hop...

I think it was early June of 2017 when I came up with the ridiculous idea of releasing 12 Books in 12 Months . Once I had that idea though, it became my goal: to release one book, every month, in 2018. Originally I was only planning on releasing four books but as things always do, the idea spiralled out of control and I decided to push my creativity to the max. I have not decided on the order of the release of the books, though the first one - 12 Books in 12 Months? -  which is a sampler of some of the work I'll be releasing this year, is to be the first one. In fact it's done and finished in Vellum - the publishing software I'm using - I'm just dealing with the technological complications that come with being a complete and utter luddite. FUQ (Frequently Unasked Questions) Q : How many books will I release this year? A : 12 Q : Why am I doing this? A : To get all my best written work out, so I can move onto other things, like podcasts, audiobooks, remixes...

Foster name: California. Earned name: Cobra  "I don't understand, why is she going to be euthanized?" I asked my supervisor. I couldn't believe it when I had spotted an orange card (the orange card of death ) on the cage of one of the cats at the animal shelter where I worked full-time. "She bites. Hard," I was told. "She's bitten a couple employees, very aggressively." The over-weight brown tabby had never bitten me. In fact, she would roll on her side and engage in belly rubs. She would chat and chirp the moment I entered the room and she was always very friendly with me. I was told which employees she had bit and I went and asked them what had happened. I was told that without warning, she would lash out and bite. She didn't like to be handled or touched and would bite when examined. She was not suitable for shelter life. The biting behavior might partially be explained by the fact that she had been declawed by someone i...

This story was inspired by the idea of what would happen if someone broke into my house. It was dark that moonless night and the wind bit at his skin. Mookie was lost again. Typical. He had a map, he’d used his GPS, but from where he was standing, every single house looked the same. Red brick. White Shutters. Blue garage doors. Welcome to the vanilla suburbs, he thought to himself. He was on a mission that night and needed to keep moving if he was going to accomplish anything before sunrise. Mookie looked at his stylish watch (it was a Ralex, a fake) and it declared the time as 01:34 AM. “Where is this damn place,” he muttered under his breath. Mookie was not a small man. He was six foot six and 280 pounds, his blood type was beef gravy. He checked the map again. The address he had been given was 1234 Rolling Road. He was on Rolling Road, but he couldn’t find 1234 anywhere. This wasn’t even his heist, or his first heist for that matter. He had sworn off h...

        Every week on Wednesday I meet with a writers group and we read each other our work and have it edited and critiqued.         This week we decided to try a writing exercise. We would have to write an original story on the spot. And then read it to the other writers.         The only stipulations were - The story had to start with the phrase “This year as Thanksgiving host, we bought a twenty pound turkey.” And end with the phrase “And that’s why we ate hamburgers.”         We also had to use 5 words that were chosen by the other members, they were Canary, Spline, Shoes, Spatula and Watermelon.         I was late to the meeting and only had 15 minutes to write my story.         This is what I wrote:         This year as the Thanksgiving host, we bought a twenty pound turkey ...         I...