Quick Writing Update

Army's bye this week was well-timed, at least for me. 

I'd have done things differently if the Black Knights had beaten Air Force this past weekend to set up a climactic showdown with the Mids for the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy this December. Since they didn't, though, I went ahead and put the AFF Crew on a bye with the team. Rob and I shot College Football Roundtable on Tuesday, but we skipped the AFF Army Football Show since we didn't think anyone was burning to relive the loss, and we've only run one article this week, Omar's preview of this weekend's American Conference slate. 

That's given me a fair amount of time to work on my own stuff in the same week in which I had both the Veterans Day holiday and a previously scheduled rest week in the pool. I've been able to write most of two chapters since last Friday, breaking a logjam in the new story that's been in place since before football season started.

I feel pretty good about that.

5 Things on a Friday: A Good Week of Racing

I did a lot of racing this week, friends. I wrote about my little bike race on the Hudson Greenway earlier this week, but then yesterday, a guy in his late twenties or early thirties showed up at the YMCA, and well, I suppose you know me well enough to know what happened.

He picked up my set at the fourth of ten 100s on 1:30, and I had to go 1:12 and then 1:10 to stay ahead of him. But by then, friends, I am sorry to say that I thought I might hyperventillate. It's a shame because my mind and muscle memory knew exactly what I needed to do to hold serve, but my body just wasn't gonna let it happen. My man wound up taking reps six through ten, following something like explosive decompression on my part.

Actually, though, I'm proud of myself because I slowed to a strictly mortal 1:20 for rep six, then gradually picked it back up through the last three reps to finish at 1:14. That's solid swimming for a guy in his fifties and was not at all easy to do. It takes quite a bit of skill and experience to work through pacing like that, and I was happy with how it came out.

Anyway, our next and last heavy set was three 200s pull on 2:50, and I won those, which was nice. Pull puts a little less strain on the heart and lungs and a little more on sheer upper-body strength, and it's also more of a mid-distance thing, so at a certain level, I played to my strengths here. More than that, though, it was really nice to swim with somebody who pushed me. That does not happen every day.

So there you have it, friends. Let's get into this week's Five Things.

Cover sneak peek, early reviewer copies, and a huge favor!

I sent out a new Stratford City Press mailer yesterday. But I actually need you guys to read this thing, so I'm going to reprint it here.

Do me a favor and read this thing!

New Story Idea: The Singlestick (Working Title)

 I wrote about this a little on Twitter yesterday.

Had an idea for a story yesterday based loosely on the Catskills Stone Bridge Murders. Set in 1892 NY, it stars Thaddeus Winters, Blaine’s ancestor who will go on to lay the Diogenes Building’s cornerstone. Planned as a short story or novella. (1/3) https://t.co/8vfO6rNoa1

— Danno E. Cabeza (@DannoECabeza) October 28, 2026

Gun Girl Gracie

I printed the manuscript out for Sally. She doesn't mind reading my stuff -- and, in fact, she seems to really like this particular book -- but she won't read it on the screen. So here's what $75 will buy you at the local Staples, if you're wondering.

Page-Chewing: "Why Do We Root for Villains?" with Danno E. Cabeza

 Of the interviews I've done recently to support The Return of Dr. Necropolis, this was probably my favorite just because we spent so much time actually talking about writing and the writing process. Normally, everybody wants to treat me like a straight-up sports guy. 

That's mostly fine, but it's hardly all that I am, nor is it necessarily the way that I think about myself. This interview offered a chance to show a different side of my personality and my life, and I felt really grateful for that.

If you're interested, I've embedded versions of the show from YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify, depending on your platform of preference.

Five Things on a Friday: The Case of the Ad Hoc Rebuild

What a week, friends. I've been up in Albany all week, and it's been busy as all hell. You wouldn't think missing my thrice-weekly train commute would make that much difference, but it threw off my whole production schedule, and alongside some other incidental nonsense, made this kind of a Thayer Week for yours truly.

My dog is sick, too, so it's been a really tough week to be away. 

But what can you do?

ISBN: 979-8-9982084-0-9

I finally sent the barcode out to the cover artist this morning. Had been putting this off for the longest time because it involves locking some stuff in with Bowker, the folks who sell ISBN numbers to Americans. But we had to do it, so here's what I gave them.

I'm just gonna drop this here....

 This thing went out to test-readers just this morning. Fingers crossed, friends.

Five Things on a Friday: Lex Luthor, Green Lantern

Happy Friday, friends!

If you're wondering, I didn't mean to be gone all week. I want to build a better following on the blog with my book coming out, and writing nothing for a full week is not the way to get that done. 

What can you do? I got busy this week. Not just with AFF but rewriting Dr. Necropolis's sequel, Gun Girl Gracie. I really want to get that thing out to test-readers soon, but I want to make sure that it's as good as it can be before I send it off, so I wound up kind of falling down the rabbit hole with it.

Anyway. We're back now. Let's get into it.

Five Things on a Friday: Bimbo Boost & Other Stories

Happy Friday, friends. 

We've had a busy week. I spent a little time rewriting Gun Girl Gracie around midweek, and as much as I enjoyed it, that little indulgence put me behind the chains with As For Football as the week developed. We somehow managed to get everything together on deadline this week, but I'm telling you, yesterday got kind of frantic.

Whew!

Thankfully, it's now Friday, and with our weekly mailer out, my work here is done... at least for the next forty-eight or so hours. That gives us a bit of time to ponder the week that was. 

It feels like a lot happened.

Chapter 7

July 8. Manhattan — Fifteen Years Ago.

“N-Doxy Test Results (trial 2): dosage upped to 20mg. Subjects show elevated mating‑behavior markers compared to placebo group. Increased physical contact (i.e. touching, grinding), synchronized movement, and increased signs of overt desire (i.e. kissing, groping).”

“Or maybe that’s just the way these kids dance,” Frank muttered. 

The FAFO Podcast is out!

I talked about it on this week's Five Things on a Friday, but in case you missed it, I did the FAFO Podcast this week, and my episode dropped yesterday. I don't know if you'd rather listen or watch us talk, but I'll include embeds below.

I'll drop the show notes after the jump.

Five Things on a Friday: Joining The Peace Corps

Happy Friday, friends. 

We had a busy week at Casa Cabeza. Among other things, we sent our oldest child off to the Peace Corps on Monday morning. She is now serving our nation overseas! 

As you can imagine, we had quite the emotional scene dropping her off at Westchester County Airport, only to see all her would-be flights get cancelled throughout the day until she finally wound up back at home just after 8 pm Monday night. She was then up all night trying to rebook her flights, which continued to get cancelled throughout the night and into the following morning. Thank you American Airlines! She finally made it to staging in Miami over thirty-six hours after we'd initially dropped her off.

Needless to say, she was a tough combination of exhausted and frustrated by the time she joined her cohort. But her follow-on flight went better, and once she finally catches up on all the sleep she missed over the course of those disastrous travel delays, I'm sure she'll be fine.

Sally and I are proud but also sad this week. What can you do?

Chapter 6

Despite his mother’s warning, Blaine found himself in Special Agent Tiffany Trujillo's FBI-issued Lincoln cruiser the next morning, heading north up the Taconic Parkway toward Sing Sing Correctional Facility and Dr. Necropolis. Tiffany had worn a professionally laundered white shirt beneath a plain, dark blue pants suit. For once, she looked more like an FBI agent than one of the world’s most famous former superheroes. She remained quiet to the point of being uncommunicative, however, and after twenty minutes or so, her demeanor started to make Blaine nervous.

Five Things on a Friday: Who Made Who?

Let's start with a banger...

Chapter 5

First Lieutenant Blaine Winters rolled through the gates of Winter House, his family’s Mount Kisco estate, a little after sunrise. As such things went, the place wasn’t too large — a mere fifty acres set off from the road by a low stone wall and a long, tree‑lined cobblestone drive. Technically, the family still owned the beaux‑arts style Diogenes Building a few blocks north of Columbus Circle, but his father had moved the family up to Westchester shortly before Blaine was born. That made Winter House the only home Blaine had ever known.

Chapter 4

By the time Exercise Period rolled around, Frank knew what he had to do. The only drawback? He’d need some help. And a trip to the infirmary. And also, potentially, an addiction to a powerful but dangerous hallucinogenic combat drug. All of this assumed that he could pull off a covert distillation in the first place. But Frank wasn’t about to let Anton run wild with the Neural Disruptor — nor with Jaynie, for that matter. Not when a little of the old mad science might change things, even here, stuck within the grotesque confines of Sing Sing Correctional Facility.

Cover Quotes for Dr. Necropolis

I've got two right now, and while I can't put either full quote on the book's actual cover, these are still really cool. They're going in there somewhere.

Chapter 3

It took nearly three-quarters of an hour for Tiffany to peel off her cocktail dress, climb back into her Titania gear, and pull her too-long auburn hair back into something she could legitimately wear as an investigative professional at a crime-scene. Showing up in her old gear would be bad enough, she knew, but if she did it with her hair done up from the baby shower, she’d never hear the end of it from Casey fucking Walcott.