Cris Game

...You hang your balls out there. For those who don't recognize it, that's a near-quote from the Tom Cruise movie Jerry Maguire . (The actual quote is "That's how you become great, man. Hang your balls out there.") Of course, the movie is best known for the catchphrase "Show me the money!" but it's this lesser-known line that has always resonated with me.  It's uttered in a scene when Jerry is picking up copies of this manifesto that he's written from the copier, and the guy who works there has seemingly read it and is singularly impressed: For me, that line has always meant that in order to reach your full potential, you have to risk failure - and often a huge, embarrassingly public failure at that.  But let's face it: there's risk inherent in almost everything that we do. You want to play basketball for your school? Then you have to go out for the team and risk being cut. You want to be a lawyer? Then you may have to take on mind-bo...

At long last, Infiltration: A Kid Sensation Novel (Kid Sensation #3) has been released! (As usual, I released both a paperback and ebook version.) This is, obviously, the third book in the series and has been the one that has taken me the longest time to complete. I had originally planned to have this one done months ago, but life got in the way. As the old saying goes, "If you want to make GOD laugh, tell him all about your plans..." Truth be told, I had a lot of things going on personally and professionally that made it difficult to get this one done. At times it felt like I would never get it completed.  Thankfully, that was not the case, and hopefully fans will enjoy this installation in the series. As has become the norm for me, I once again neglected to do almost anything to give anyone a heads-up that the book was coming out (other than state in a comment on this blog that the book would be released before year's end - and I barely made the cut). I keep telling my...

Recently, I was drawn into a discussion about bad books and the policy that some people have of returning them. Personally, I've bought thousands of books over the years and never returned a single one. Moreover, even when a book is absolutely horrid, I generally make it a point to slog my way through to the end once I've started.  (There are maybe three books that were so bad that I couldn't finish them, but in each of those instances at least part of the reason for my failure to finish was that they were actually library books that were [thankfully] due back.) From my perspective, the bad ones that I own add to the diversity of my collection. However, the more I think about it, the more it occurs to me that reading bad books can actually be good for you from the standpoint of being a writer. First of all, books can be bad in a lot of ways. From cover art to editing to plot development, there are a million ways for the written word to leave a terrible taste in your mouth. ...

Hey everyone! It's been a while since our last post, and a lot has happened! We've been working around the clock in preparation for the holidays. Each of us took some well earned time off for Thanksgiving weekend, and now we are making the last big push before we take off for 2 weeks toward the end of December. Thanksgiving Break I'll try to make another post before we go, but I make no guarantees! Anywhoozel, this past month has been very exciting for us. We are finally working on our Volcano level! It is a definite change of scenery, and we welcome the change. My cat helping me sketch out ideas for XING Here are some sneak peak shots of our work in progress: *Just remember that these screenshots are not exactly what you will see in the final game, since there is still so much to be done!* In case we don't make another post before the break, we hope you all have an amazing holiday this year!