Greetings, everyone! I had some trouble recently posting on the site and even lost a few posts.  I’m working to fix the issues. However, I can’t dedicate as much time as I would like. I have a tight writing schedule this month, some impending deadlines, and I’m behind on a few other obligations. I expect that I will return Friday, May 3rd. I will finish off the Game of Thrones posts and move into a week on Mad Men. I’m sorry about the delay but I’m working hard to catch up and fix whatever issue are occurring with the posts. Thanks! See you soon!

So, if you started following this blog last year, then you might be wondering what happened to it. Unfortunately, over-scheduling happened. Once SHU’s MFA program got into full swing, my schedule filled up really fast. I had to prioritize my work and this little blog fell right through the cracks. This year, I’m going to work on my scheduling and time management. I have a lot of goals, I’m no longer new to the program, and I’m hoping to accomplish quite a bit.

In celebration of the new year, new semester, and new direction of the blog, I’ve decided to change the format. As you can see, this format has more of a typewriter feel. I also think it has a slight newspaper feel to it. Anyway, I love this new format. I know that some bloggers like a lot of flash on their pages, they love a lot of images and fancy things. I love those things too but in the interest of time, I can’t keep up with it. Instead, I’ve chosen this very clean format that should make the site easy to navigate and enjoyable to look at. I like the way it looks on a computer and I love the way it looks on a tablet.

I’ve also created three new categories that I’ll try to write about once a week. We have Writing Wednesday, Fan Friday, and Story Sunday.

Writing Wednesday: This will be a place to talk about writing, reading, or concepts within a genre. I might give writing advice, talk about an issue I’m having in my own writing, or address certain things I see in writing today.

Fan Friday: Honestly, I’m just going to dedicate a post to being a fan of something. I like a lot of things from books, to shows, to products, and so on. On Fridays, come by and tell me what you’re interested in this week. Everyone has likes and interests and this is a place for you to share them.

Story Sunday: Let’s talk about stories! This is a place there I might do some reviews or just talk about different stories I’ve encountered. This isn’t limited to novels, feel free to talk about stories in any form or genre.

Once in a while, I might introduce a theme for a certain week. Off the top of my head, I can tell you that I’ll probably have a week for George R.R. Martin. I’ll talk about his writing, fan out about once of his books, and then talk about one of his story arcs.

This is a blog, it’s a place for me to post ideas but it’s also a place for you to come and express your own ideas.  So join in and have some fun!

Wonderful writing for a great cause. Please check out this collection put together by a wealth of talented writers to help out a member of our Seton Hill family.

Seventy-six writers connected to the Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction program have created a multi-genre charity anthology entitled Hazard Yet Forward. All proceeds from this project will benefit Donna Munro, a 2004 graduate of the program. Munro, a teacher living in St. Louis, Missouri, was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.

Genres represented in the book range from horror to romance to mystery – and everything in between. Some of the notable writers in the anthology are World Fantasy Award winner Nalo Hopkinson, Bram Stoker winners Michael A. Arnzen and Michael Knost, Bram Stoker nominee Lawrence C. Connolly, ALA/YALSA Best Book for Young Adults winner Jessica Warman, Rita finalist Dana Marton, Spur award winner Meg Mims, Asimov’s Reader’s Award winner Timons Esaias and WV Arts and Humanities literary fellowships winner, Geoffrey Cameron Fuller.

So my very talented friend, Mary DeSantis, interviewed me this week for her blog. You can find the interview here… http://outofthelockbox.blogspot.com/2012/07/wpfer-interview-matt-odwyer.html

It was a really great experience.