I haven’t picked a winner for the quote contest yet, because there are just so many good ones.  Some of them are just plain laugh out loud funny.  I’m going to have to hold off until I get the revision done, and then pick one. 

You guys are awesome.

A week ago, today, I broke my toe.  And it wasn’t by doing anything cool, like kicking a ninja in the face.  Oh, no, not me.  I was making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for my kids and knocked the glass bottle of grape jelly off the counter.  It landed just right on my 2nd toe on my left foot.  Of course, I was barefoot.

I’m feeling better now, but breaking toes sucks.  There’s not really anything you can do about it, except tie it to the other toes and call it good.  That’s the same thing the hospital would do, only it saved me like $200 to have my wife do it.

“You know what the difference between me and you really is?  You look out there and see a horde of evil, brain eating zombies.  I look out there and see a target rich environment.”

            -Dillis D. Freeman Jr. 11/2/2001

That was the quote that kicked off MHI. It actually has nothing at all to do with the story, but it was that quote that gave me the general vibe I needed to put together several ideas that I had into one coherant plotline, that I eventually turned into Monster Hunter International.

That quote was pretty much perfect to kick the book off. I had read that quote off of www.thefiringline.com and I contacted the poster that wrote it, and asked their permission. He had no problem with me using it, as long as I attributed it him. I’m still thankful for Dillis giving me permission to use it.

As you all know, MHI has gone on to do pretty good. Having a good opening quote helps!

I just wrapped up the rough draft of MHI:2. Looking good so far. One problem. No opening quote.  I’ve got tons of good quotes from my own characters, but I kind of want something written by somebody else.

So I would like to kick off the Offical MHI:2 Opening Quote Contest. I need a quote. You guys are smart. Many of you have read my book, and even if you haven’t, as long as it is monster related, and works with the overall MHI theme, (evil looms, cowboy up, kill it, get paid), we’re good to go.

There really aren’t any rules. You got a cool quote you think I can use. Post it. If it wins, I’ll use it. The prize?  Uh… you get attribution under whatever name you feel like me using, and so you get your name on the front page of a future best selling novel. (well, we’ll just assume best selling, you know, power of positive thinking and all that jazz).

If you think your quote is so massively awesome that you can build a whole book off it, and you don’t want me to take it, then don’t post it here!  If you post it, I’m assuimg you want me to steal it.

So bring them on. Post your original monster related quotes here.  I can’t promise that any of these will win, but even if I end up using one of your quotes and tweaking it, you still get the attribution. (assuming you want it).

The Obama campaign talks a lot about new ideas and expanding the political map, but in the swing state of Pennsylvania, which the campaign has focused on almost exclusively since the Democratic convention, old-school issues still rise to the fore.

The latest example came Friday during a small political event at SCHOTT North America Inc., a glass factory in Duryea, Pa., where even a hand-picked crowd threw Barack Obama a curve ball.

A woman in the crowd told Obama she had “heard a rumor” that he might be planning some sort of gun ban upon being elected president. Obama trotted out his standard policy stance, that he had a deep respect for the “traditions of gun ownership” but favored measures in big cities to keep guns out of the hands of “gang bangers and drug dealers’’ in big cities “who already have them and are shooting people.”

“If you’ve got a gun in your house, I’m not taking it,’’ Obama said. But the Illinois senator could still see skeptics in the crowd, particularly on the faces of several men at the back of the room.

So he tried again. “Even if I want to take them away, I don’t have the votes in Congress,’’ he said. “This can’t be the reason not to vote for me. Can everyone hear me in the back? I see a couple of sportsmen back there. I’m not going to take away your guns.’’

http://gundoctor.wordpress.com/

Joe just finished up a desert sage pattern FAL, and it looks amazing. I’m going to have him do an 5.56 custom “race” AK for me, but I haven’t decided on the pattern yet.