Pale January lay / In its cradle day by day / Dead or living, hard to say (#IWSG January 2026)

New Year. Same shit.

Except it's not the same. Not really. Things are different, and they're going to continue to be different. The only constant in life is change, as they say.

The family is still grieving the loss of my father-in-law. My wife is taking it particularly hard. Christmas brought up all kinds of feelings, some good, some bad, but mostly, things felt different. Of course it is, when a major figure in your family is no longer there. The whole dynamic shifts, and everyone is still wandering around in a daze, trying to figure out what life is supposed to look like now. 

But it's not just the big things. There are little things, that trigger little lightning flashes in the mind, that bounce around the inside of your skull and illuminate how life is different now. How your thoughts are different. 

This week is the 10 year anniversary of David Bowie's death. That's a sad anniversary, in its own right, but it's the other feelings it stirs up that surprises me. For Christmas, my daughter got my a Ziggy Stardust record. I was not expecting it, didn't even know I wanted it, but it was probably my favourite gift I received this year. She thought it was special because I used to sing her David Bowie songs at bedtime when she was little. Still do, sometimes. His were some of the only songs I could remember with semi-appropriate lyrics. The wife didn't think Nine Inch Nails was suitable (though I did sneak one or two of those in, from time to time). Anyway, I put the record on Christmas Day and I started to cry. I'm not certain why. Part of it was nostalgia, part of it was remembering that time with my daughter. Part of it was remembering being a kid myself, and discovering David Bowie the first time, listening to the music alone in my room, fascinated by the strange poetry of it, staring at the lyrics and the liner notes. It was such a strange sense of deja vu, returning to a place and a memory that doesn't exist anymore. 

We also finished watching Stranger Things the other day. My wife and I enjoyed the series, and mostly enjoyed the final season. But this too, hit me strangely harder than I would have expected, certainly more than most TV shows do. Not to get too spoilery, but in the end, alot of the themes were about growing up and moving on. One of the last scenes shows the kids putting their Dungeons & Dragons character sheets away, and that particular shot resounded with me like a sledgehammer. Just days before this, on Christmas break, I had come to a realization: I will probably never play D&D again. Something that I loved so dearly, that was such an integral part of my life for such a long time, is gone. Those endless days and long nights of rolling dice and telling stories with friends are behind me. There is too much responsibility, and not enough energy, to devote that much time to a game anymore. I wanted to run a game for my kids and nieces over Christmas, which they probably would have enjoyed, but the thought of it was just too daunting. Just coming up with a story, and being creatively and emotionally "on" for the hours it takes to run it, was just exhausting to think about. I got discouraged before I even did anything.

It's not just getting old. It's about not being a kid anymore. It's about not being young. It's about life changing, and mortality suddenly becoming a very real and ever-present companion on this journey through time and space.

Writing used to be a release, and an escape. I wanted to tell stories. Needed to tell them. But that drive doesn't seem to be there anymore. I do try, I still try to write a little bit every day, and there's a couple of stories and books I'm chipping away on. But none of them feel urgent and important anymore. Maybe it's because I haven't sold a book in literally months and it's just getting me down, but more likely my creative energy is gone to the same place my hopes and youth are hiding.

Now, I recognize that this post is becoming a total bummer, so before anyone rushes out to call emergency services to do a mental health check on me, I will end on a slightly higher note: I made a sort of early New Year's Resolution before Christmas, and I started playing soccer. Yes, at 45 years old, having not played since gym class in high school, I went out and bought a pair of ugly yellow cleats on clearance, went down to the local rec centre, and started playing pick-up games. Why? I was never a sporty person, or played competitively in my youth or anything. I guess from watching my daughter play and practice all year, I just got the itch to try it out. And there has been so many things in my life I've been afraid to try, and later regretted, that I decided I had to start trying something before it was too late.

Not surprisingly, I'm terrible. Can't shoot, can't pass. My cardio's not bad, I have gotten back into running this year, so that helped. Mostly I've been playing in the games for the 35+ crowd, and they're pretty easy going, and supportive, and at least I'm faster than many of them, even if my actual skills are non-existent. I tried one game with the regular, supposedly "All Skill Levels" group, which was all 20-somethings who were way too intense and a million times better than me, and I think they resented the old guy showing up and taking up space on their field. I literally sat on the bench for over half the match. In a community pick-up rec game. It was embarrassing, and humiliating, and part of me knew I should just give up then, but somehow I managed to drag myself back the following week for the old-timers game... and I had fun. For a few minutes, just running around, kicking a ball like a kid again. It was fleeting, but I got a tiny bit of that energy back. Just for a moment. I hurt like hell the next day, but still. It was something.

Those of you who've watched the show get it.

I don't know where I'm going with this. I'm just trying to process some feelings, I think. I believe this month's question was supposed to be something about writing plans for 2026, so sorry if anyone came for Tips on Finishing Your Manuscript in the New YearTM and found a middle-aged man's existential crisis instead, I'm sorry. But it wouldn't be called the Insecure Writers Support Group if we weren't a bit insecure sometimes, right? Or in my case, just completely lost.

Keep your head up, boys and girls. It's a new year, and hopefully there's a bright and shiny future out there for you somewhere. You know, if the world doesn't completely go to shit first. I'm not even going to touch that right now.

Hugs and kisses,
-CDGK

The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Writers post their thoughts on their blogs, talking about their doubts and the fears they have conquered. It's a chance for writers to commiserate and offer a word of encouragement to each other. Check out the group at http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com

Painting Part 4 - Custom FUNKO POPS!

Are you familiar with Funko Pops? They're little vinyl figures with giant heads (sometimes bobbleheads) made in the likeness of various pop culture characters and personalities. Virtually every fandom has Funko Pops: movies, tv shows, video games, musicians, anime, athletes, the list goes on and on. They're fun little collectibles for your favourite pop culture content, and a rather large collectible industry has grown up around them. Some rare figures can sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

So, combining my love of making custom presents (see Christmas books) and painting small things, this year I've started making custom Funko Pops as birthday presents for my family. My digital sculpting skills aren't that great yet so I don't design them from scratch, but there are many websites where you can buy custom Funko Pop components. I mash them together, print them on my 3D printer, and paint away!

This is the first one I did, for my father-in-law. He's a handy guy and he's worked as a carpenter for years, so he got a little hammer. He told me I gave him too much hair.

This is my wife. I liked this one for the detail on her tattoo, which of course you can't see in this picture. She loves to bake cakes (you can see her cakes in the background of several of these picture). This is one of the first models I had to physically re-sculpt, because her classes didn't come out properly. I had to use clay to repair the glasses frames and her hair, and I was pretty happy with the results:

This one's my daughter. It's not in the official Funko Pop style, but this one fit her perfectly. She loves the devil horns and demon wings. And at least she got to have details on her eyes.

This is my sister in law. She loves band t-shirts, and David Bowie is her favourite artist, so she got a little "Bowie" logo on her shirt.

Everyone loves the dog the most, of course. I had to repaint it, because I originally used a photo of her as a puppy, then saw her in person and realized her colours had darkened and changed. 

This is my older niece. This one is actually a repainted version of a character from the old Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. I painted her as her D&D character (she loves cloaks), but her hair really is electric blue. She also got the nicest base so far.

This is my brother-in-law, and it's my favourite one so far. The logo on the hat was some of the first free hand painting I did at this scale, and I think it turned out pretty good. I was really proud of the stitches on the baseball and glove, but of course you can't see them in this picture. There's also a really nice salt-and-pepper effect on his hair and beard. 

So that leaves my mother-in-law, son and my youngest niece (and me of course, if I feel like making one of myself). I've started work on my niece, her birthday is the end of this month. I may do my son and mother-in-law for Christmas, though realistically I'll probably do them for their birthdays early in the new year.

Anyway, back to work/painting/writing/preparing for the Annual Halloween Haunted House.

Hugs & kisses,

-CDGK

REMAKES Blog Fest: The Music

Hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh and Heather M. Gardner.

Remakes – most of them suck. Now and then, one comes along that is as good as, if not better, than the original. And after all of the bad ones we’ve endured, we want to know about some good ones.
On November 13, 2017, blog about your favorite remake: movie (or television show into movie and vice versa), song, or book – or all three! Post a YouTube video and links where we can find these treasures. Tell us why THIS remake doesn’t suck!

Full list of pariticipating blogs at the bottom of this post.

THE MUSIC!

I love covers. Absolutely adore them. So much that I will often listen to musical genres I don't even usually like if someone has a new and interesting take on an old tune. I am unabashedly a fan of "Grey's Anatomy" covers of old pop songs. The show has made an industry out of indy-acoustic remixes of 80s pop hits, and I have Spotify playlists full of them. I also have an unusual number of bluegrass songs on my iPod, but all of them are covers of heavy metal or mid-2000s emo punk bands.

The best for me is when the artist takes a drastically different spin on a classic riff, like turning a slow ballad into thrash metal or remaking a hardcore hip hop song into something romantic. As with any kind of remake, it only works when you have something new to say. Just redoing the same thing the same way it was done before is boring. It's why covers of holiday classics are usually terrible - it's just a soulless rendition of the same thing we've heard a thousand times before.

Baby It's Cold Outside
Cover by CeeLo Green & Christina Aguilera

"Baby It's Cold Outside" is already an awful song for obvious reasons, but the recent Christina Aguilera/CeeLo Green cover made me want to claw my eyes out. It's just two very talented singers, who are obviously not even recording in the same room, trying to out-sing each other. There's no fun, no new take, nothing interesting about it. I supposed you could argue that about a lot of Holiday music, but then most holiday songs are covers, so I wonder why that works out, huh?

Anyway, on to the good stuff...

Love Will Tear Us Apart
Originally by Joy Division, covered by Nouvelle Vague

Quick story: I first heard Nouvelle Vague at a restaurant when I was out to dinner with my wife and in-laws. I loved the music they were playing so much that I asked the waiter what they were playing and immediately went out and bought the CD. I never do that, either talk to people or buy CDs, so that tells you how much I love this band.

Nouvelle Vague is french for "new wave," and it the name of a French group that almost exclusively covers "new wave" music from the 70s and 80s (like Joy Division, Depeche Mode, & New Order) with bossa nova beat (which itself is Portuguese for "new wave"), Besides being an awesome play on words, the musical arrangements are outstanding, and provides a wonderful background soundtrack to lounging around at a classy cocktail party. I always feel so continental when I listen to this stuff.

I'm Afraid of Americans
Originally by David Bowie, covered by O.R.K.

This is one of my favourite David Bowie songs, probably because it was heavily influenced by Trent Reznor during Bowie's dalliance with industrial music in the 1990s. My two favourite artists, together at last? What could be better?

Well, after the tragic events of November 8, 2016, I figured a cover of this song HAD to happen, and sure enough it only took about 6 months to come to light. While I prefer the actual musical arrangement in Bowie's original and Nine Inch Nail's remix, O.R.K.'s version makes the single most important musical change of this decade by swapping all the references to generic American "Johnny" with "Donny" in the lyrics instead.

Donny wants a plane
Donny wants to suck on a Coke
Donny wants a woman
Donny wants to think of a joke
Donny's in America
Donny's in America
Donny looks up at the stars
Donny combs his hair
Donny wants pussy in cars
Donny's in America

I'm still waiting to see if A Perfect Circle come out with an ever better cover when their inevitable new album drops. Their eMOTIVe album of anti-war cover songs, released during the height of W's presidency, was outstanding.

While I'm on the topic, I might as well throw this one out there:

Imagine

Originally by John Lennon, covered by A Perfect Circle

(Warning: Some graphic content and disturbing images)

Some folks might be a bit miffed on such a skewed take on a classic, hopeful song, but I think the material was open for it. Not to mention I'm a sucker for anything Maynard James Keenan does.

Imagine has always been a hopeful, positive song, asking us to picture the amazing things that people could do in a perfect world. A Perfect Circle twists this meaning, talking about the wonderful things people are capable of but reminding us that they're not doing it. The dissonant key and the minor chords in this just hit you right in the heart (even without the disturbing video above). It's a melancholy, bittersweet take on that hopeful message. It's ironic and almost mocking, as if to say, "Hey wouldn't it be great if we could get along? Too bad we never will."

Ice Ice Baby
Original by Vanilla Ice, cover by Richard Cheese

Okay, just so we don't go out on a total bummer, please enjoy the smooth stylings of Richard Cheese.

Now, to be fair, Richard Cheese is a lot like Nouvelle Vague. It's all jazzy lounge music, though instead of covering one particular style of music, he'll do anything and everything - hip hop, metal, 80s pop, TV theme songs, anything that's fun. Here's the thing: Richard Cheese is, technically speaking, a novelty act, but he's a great singer and always surrounds himself with talented musicians and awesome arrangements, so even though he's doing it tongue-in-cheek, the songs are amazing.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love it when people don't take themselves or their art too seriously, so someone who names himself after smegma and make nu-metal songs palpable is okay in my book.

Check out some of the other great blogs participating today:

L - The Deadly Lacrosse Game at Fort Michilimackinac

Fort Michilimackinac was an 18th century French fort and trading post on the northern tip of the lower peninsula of what is today the state of Michigan. It still exists as a popular tourist attraction . I'm including this in Canadian history because prior to the US war of Independence, Michilimackinac was actually located in what was called by the British "Upper Canada."

Also, because Lacrosse is the national sport of Canada.

Bet you didn't know that, right? You assumed it was hockey, right?

(Okay, fine. Hockey is Canada's official "Winter" sport, but that's a relatively new development. From 1859 to 1994, Lacrosse was the country's only recognized "official" sport. Yeah, I don't get it either.)

Pictured: Not hockey.

Pictured: Girls playing not hockey. Notice how they don't need any wussy helmets or gloves.

Michilimackinac (God I love that word) was ceded from France to Britain in 1761 following their loss in the Seven-Years War. The fall-out from this war actually had far-reaching consequences across Canada that are still felt today and are too complicated to get into in this post (basically it's the beginning for much of the English/French/Native tensions in the country). The important point for this story, however, is that while Britain controlled the fort with a handful of troops, the population of the area was still predominantly French and Métis, and they did not get along with their new British landlords.

The young English Major in charge of the fort, George Etherington, is what historians call "a bit of a twit." He patently ignored warnings from the French Canadians that the local tribes were planning an attack. When a huge contingent of Objibwe and Sauk arrived at his gates on June 2, 1763, asking the British to come watch their game of baaga'adowe (also called baggatiway, the forerunner of modern Lacrosse) in honour of the King's birthday, the Major heartily agreed. In fact, Etherington was so oblivious to the dangers that he actually left the gates open and sent his men out to watch unarmed.

Did I mention that the Objibwe and Sauk outnumbered the British troops 500 to 35?

"There's no way this is going to work."

"It will. Trust me. The British are REALLY dumb."

The Attack at Michilimackinac is a bitchin' band name. It was also part of Pontiac's Rebellion, the famed war in which numerous indigenous tribes banded together to oppose the new British rule. The Rebellion ultimately did not drive out the British colonists, though it did force them to renegotiate some of their policies, and led to lasting respect and goodwill between the First Nations and the Colonist governments.

That last part was a terrible joke, by the way.

The Rebellion may have ultimately failed, but Michilimackinac was a resounding, if empty victory. The tribes stormed the fort and slaughtered any Englishmen they could find, sparing the French. Etherington and his lieutenant were taken hostage, and the fort was abandoned and taken over by the French traders. Eventually those very same French traders helped negotiate Etherington's release, and by the next year a battalion of English troops had reclaimed the fort, which the Ojibwe had never really wanted anyway.

Bonus fun fact? A few years later, the British and French colonists and indigenous tribes in the area were forced to band together against a new common enemy. Need a clue who it was? The year was 1776.

Further reading: http://mynorth.com/2010/05/deadly-lacrosse-game-in-mackinac-straits-at-fort-michilimackinac-in-1763/

My A-to-Z Blogging Challenge theme for 2017 is Weird Canadian Facts and History. To see more blog posts, click here.

Hell Comes to Hogtown: The Soundtrack

For those who missed it, my new book Hell Comes to Hogtown was released last week to much fanfare. It's available now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iTunes, Smashwords and many others, so you should go immediately to your online retailer of choice and pick up a copy. Then come back here and listen to these songs while you read it. It will greatly improve your overall experience.

I can't speak for other writers, but I listen to music constantly when I write, and certain songs tend to burrow into my brain and insinuate themselves into my writing. I've said before that my first book, Ten Thousand Days, was basically inspired by A Perfect Circle's song "Sleeping Beauty." I don't have a single song this time around had that kind of impact, but I actually have enough songs that are meaningful to the story that I can come up with an entire album.

Some of these tunes I listened to while I wrote and they affected my frame of mind and thus affected my writing. Some of them just strike me as being appropriate to the story. Either way, it's a fun little exercise and maybe it will help you understand the theme and the atmosphere I'm going for in my book. Or maybe you'll just get to listen to the fun tunes.

~ | ~

"Zombie Night" by Trastorners

This is the music from the trailer. I wanted something both dark and humorous that fit with the theme of the piece (I also wanted something that was royalty free so take that for what it's worth). It may not capture what I was going for exactly, but it's close. There's another song by this band I wanted to use, but it was too familiar and people would have associated it too closely with something else. SPOILER WARNING: The book doesn't actually have anything to do with zombies.

"Conditions of my Parole" by Puscifer

This is the theme for Act I, and quite accidentally, it nearly tells the plot of the book. It was not at all planned, because I hadn't heard this song until I was nearly finished the manuscript, but there are several lines in "Conditions of My Parole" that nearly spoil the story. I don't know why I'm including it except that were Hogtown be made into a movie, this would actually make a great theme song, like the Bond themes of old.

"Applause" by Lady Gaga

This is the only song that's actually mentioned by name in the book. It's the entrance music for Dee, one of the main characters. He's a professional wrestler, and it's the song that plays when he makes his way down to the ring. It's perfect because the idea of living your life on stage and doing everything for "The Applause" is EXACTLY Dee's motivation. He's a narcissist and everything he does is for attention. Plus it's a really catchy tune.

"Dear Brother" by Puscifer

This is the theme of Act II, when the story gets darker. It's about raising a drink to fallen brothers, and cursing "the reaper (who) slips right past us/the bastard stole your breath away." It's a little more introspective, a little more serious than "Conditions of My Parole," which follows the pace of the book nicely.

"The Heart's Filthy Lesson" by David Bowie

The villain's theme. The creepy demon hobo holds many dark secrets in his heart, and he knows everyone else's secrets as well. He's dark and dissonant and discordant, just like the song. It's about death and loss and longing, but also about having a sick sort of admiration for the beauty of murder and destruction. About holding dark desires in one's heart. Plus it's just an awesome song, and I had to include David Bowie somewhere.

"Kalopsia" by Queens of the Stone Age

Kalopsia is a condition, state or delusion in which things appear more beautiful than they are. This is the theme of Act III, which is where our hero Fitz discovers so many things aren't what they seem. Things that seemed beautiful turn ugly, the world he thought he understood is turned upside down, and he's forced to reevaluate parts of his life and relationship that he's held true for years. The pace of the song is also perfect for the up-and-down roller coaster of the last few chapters. The song goes from low, dreamy and confusion valleys to soaring, powerful peaks, keeping you off balance and reeling, just like our hero.

"Chelsea No 2" by Rufus Wainwright (Leonard Cohen Cover)

This is Alexandre Croteau's theme. Alex is one of the RCMP officers chasing down Fitz and Dee and one of the main players in the story. I knew I wanted to include a Rufus Wainwright song, it was either this one or Montauk. I always imagine this song in one of the book's violent, deadly fights toward the end. It's incredibly incongruous but gives a chilling and sorrowful undertone to the violence. I could totally picture that scene in a movie in slow-motion, shot like a choreographed dance number, with a slow love song playing at graphic violence in the centre.

"A Drowning" by How to Destroy Angels

Ariadne's theme. She is the woman that enters the comic shop and turns Fitz's life upside down, and she is destined for a dark fate right from the beginning. Her mysterious, painful past is only hinted in the story, but the bits that we do see are heartbreaking enough.

"The Munsters" by Trastorners

And here's the other song I alluded to at the top. If Hogtown was a movie, this is the song that would play over the closing credits. Despite the heavy nature of most of the music, it is a funny book with strong elements of comedy, and I wanted to include that somewhere. The goofiness of the Munsters' theme song just provides such a nice dichotomy to the heavy-handedness of the rest of the contract.

~ | ~

THE BOOK!

Title: Hell Comes to Hogtown

Author: C.D Gallant-King

Genre: Comic Horror

Length: 65,000 words

Cover Art: Jason Salvatori and Max Covers

Editing: Amy Allen-MacLeod

Release Date: July 1, 2016

Fitz is a broke night manager for a grubby comic book store. His only friend Dee is a drugged-out, womanizing pro-wrestler. Together they’re the most pathetic losers on the face of the planet. Their lives cannot possibly get any worse.

And then they’re implicated in the kidnapping of the prime minister’s wife.

On the run from the cops, Fitz and Dee discover there is something far worse than the RCMP stalking the dark streets of Toronto. They are being hunted by an ancient demon of unspeakable evil with an insatiable taste for blood... or maybe it’s just your run-of-the-mill giant murderous hobo?

Either way, life in prison might be better than whatever the creepy drifter has in store for them…

THE LINKS!

You can purchase Hell Comes to Hogtown at any of the fine retailers below:

AMAZON.COM | AMAZON.CA | AMAZON.CO.UK

KOBO | BARNES & NOBLE | iTUNES
CREATESPACE | SMASHWORDS | GOODREADS

~ | ~

"You Promised Me The Ending Would Be Clear," or, "Thank you, Mister Bowie"

I'm not a big celebrity chaser or an idol worshiper. I don't build up an aura or mystique around famous artists and entertainers the way some do, but I do respect and admire those creators whose work inspire me. Because I'm not so invested, I guess I'm generally not as devastated when we lose figures from our cult of personality (though I do appreciate many of my friends were pretty broken up about Lemmy a few weeks ago). However, sometimes, just sometimes, a celebrity death really kicks me in the gut.

The first time I was really bummed about such a death was Kurt Vonnegut. I was HUGELY into his books at the time and while he was getting up in years and wasn't writing much anymore, the definitive realization that there would be no more books really stung. Plus he was such an interesting and fascinating fellow.

The most recent before today was Terry Pratchett, which was hard because I loved Pratchett's work at least as much if not more than Vonnegut. His was also massively influential to my own writing. It didn't hurt as hard as it could have because we knew he had been sick for a long time and that the end was coming. Plus I heard the news of his passing while my wife was in labour, so I really didn't have time to dwell on it.

Then came today.

A little background info first. In 1995 I was listening to mostly stuff I picked up going through my dad's old vinyl. Deep Purple, Queen, Three Dog Night, Jesus Christ Superstar for some reason. The newest album I owned was a cassette of Micheal Jackson's "Thriller."

My friends were mostly still into 80s hair metal and early-90s thrash metal, refusing to modernize to what the "cool kids" were listening to (Nirvana and Pearl Jam). I was far from the cool kids, and while I liked some of the metal, my friends were going farther and farther into dark growly stuff that just didn't do it for me.

I did have one friend who was into pretty much everything though, and he would constantly tape music videos off MuchMusic (the Canadian version of MTV). One day he introduced me to David Bowie's new song "Heart's Filthy Lesson." We only picked up on it at first because we misheard the line "I am already" as "I am a Reggie" which we thought was HILARIOUS. We watched/listened to the song over and over cracking ourselves up, until I eventually realized "Wait a minute, I really like that song."

I actually went out and bought the CD that the song appeared on, "Outside," which was one of the first CDs I ever bought, and probably the first album of new music (previous CDs were Queen and Deep Purple Greatest Hits records).

It came in a cardboard sleeve instead of a jewel case.
Bowie was so avant-garde.

"Outside" may not be remembered as one of Bowie's best or most famous albums, but 15-year old me LOVED IT (35 year-old me does, too). It was another of his concept albums, set in "futuristic" 1999 where Bowie played "Detective Academic" Nathan Adler, a PI investigating the murder case of a 15-year old prostitute. Technically, the full description was "The Ritual Art-Murder of Baby Grace Blue: A Non-Linear Gothic Drama Hyper-Cycle," and the liner notes had some twisted and messed up artwork to accompany the weird and haunting story of Nathan's case.

More important than the off-the-wall concept was the music. "Hallo Spaceboy," "Heart's Filthy Lesson," "I Have Not Been to Oxford Town" and "Strangers When We Met" are still some of my favourite songs, period. The rest of the songs, between the weird dramatic segues, are also great. For those who aren't familiar, "Outside" came out during Bowie's period when he was hanging out with peak-form Trent Reznor, and Reznor's industrial influence was massively apparent on the record.

This new style of music blew my mind. I had heard of Reznor before but had never really given him a chance (my friends weren't into it - such is the power of peer pressure). Filtered through Bowie, however, I was immediately hooked. This led me to Nine Inch Nails, as well as Marilyn Manson, Tool, Linkin Park and Korn. He also led me back to the guys who influenced Reznor, like Joy Division/New Order, Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Depeche Mode and, of course, Bowie himself. For those who know me, THOSE are the bands who defined and shaped my teens and early adult years. Hell, in  the case of Reznor and Maynard James Keenan of Tool, some of those guys are STILL making music I love.

Marilyn Manson still makes music, too.

It's the music that helped make me who I am. It's the music I listened to when I was an angry young man. It's the music I listen to as a perturbed suburban dad. It's the music I listen to when I write. It influenced me just as much as Vonnegut or Pratchett. And it can all be traced back to Bowie.

(Then there's Labyrinth, which was a very special movie to my wife and I during our early courtship. Bowie's finger prints are all over my life.)

So yeah, David Bowie had a massive influence on me, and the shocking news of his death this morning really hit me hard. I had literally just downloaded his new album "Blackstar" just twenty minutes before I heard. It's heart-wrenching. This may be the last new Bowie music we ever hear. I say "may be" because if there's other material out there somewhere it will eventually see the light of day. We all remember how Johnny Cash's exceptional final album "American IV" was followed with several posthumous releases of diminishing quality.

In the case of Bowie, I kinda hope there isn't any more. If there was additional music out there that Bowie wanted us to hear, he would have put it on "Blackstar," or his previous record "The Next Day" (which was really, really good, by the way).

Though if I had to pick just one, 1997's Earthling is probably my top Bowie album.

Back in 2003 when he released "Reality," he thought that may have been his final album, and the last track "Bring Me the Disco King" would have been a perfect coda to his career. That was not an accident. I'm sure he knew (or very strongly suspected) that "Blackstar" was going to be his last, so whatever note he wanted to end on, hopefully he chose it. Judging by "I Can't Give Everything Away," the last song on "Blackstar," I think he ended it exactly the way he intended to.

Thank you, David Robert Jones, for giving us everything you did.

I know something is very wrong

The pulse returns for prodigal sons

The blackout's hearts with flowered news

With skull designs upon my shoes

I can't give everything

I can't give everything

Away

I can't give everything

Away

Seeing more and feeling less

Saying no but meaning yes

This is all I ever meant

That's the message that I sent

I can't give everything

I can't give everything

Away

I can't give everything

Away

I can't give everything

I can't give everything

Away

I can't give everything

Away

- David Bowie, "I Can't Give Everything Away"