IT'S BEEN ALMOST A YEAR SINCE I LAST POSTED HERE!

And it seems this is all I have to show for it...

Cover art for The Moon Man Omnibus Edition, from Anderfam |ress

Cover art for The Bralkevenous Equation by Joel Jenkins

I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio

I never knew these were a thing...

You see these things? I bought a hundred and twenty of them yesterday. My daughter wanted them.

So what are these things?

My daughter is getting married at the end of this month and the place where her wedding is being held doesn’t like people throwing rice or confetti. It’s too much work to clean up afterwards and wedding parties rarely stick around to clean up after themselves. So what’s the alternative?

Bubbles! Wedding guest now blow bubbles instead of throwing rice or confetti. An apparently it’s a common enough thing that companies market tiny bottles of bubble soap specifically for weddings. The kind that I got hold eight bottles per package. I bought 15 packages.

120 little tiny bubble soap bottles. I had no idea that this was even a thing until I picked them up yesterday.

And it just so happens that the local store that sells them just happened to get a double order a couple of days ago, much more than they usually get. So when my wife called asking about them they had just enough for our needs.

So it was meant to be. Now we just have to decorate them so they look pretty and match the wedding’s color scheme.

Next item to get: little hanging baskets. What are those? I have no idea. But I’ll find out and then buy a whole bunch of them.

I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio

Gosh it's been a long time since I posted anything here! I've almost forgotten how to do this.

This piece is called OPEN CARRY. I was thinking about the whole concept of open carry and how you see it in science fiction films all the time, which led me to this.

Honestly, that's what I was thinking. It wasn't just an excuse to paint hot green Star Trek girls.

Really!

I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio

THE SPECIALISTS

Cover art for THE SPECIALISTS by Derrick Ferguson and Joel Jenkins.

I'm very lucky.

I have been very fortunate to do the cover art for a book series fromPulpWork Press. Author Joel Jenkins writes a series of fast-paced action thrillers featuring the Gantlet Brothers. The five Gantlet siblings are rock and roll musicians and guns for hire. The books are a series of high octane chases, escapes, mysteries and a whole lot of fun.

Because I have done the cover art I have had the privilege of getting to read each of the books before they are released and they have gotten better each time.

Pulpwork Press is also the publisher of Derrick Ferguson's DILLON books. Dillon is a larger-than-life adventurer in the tradition of the old hero-pulps. Ferguson's Dillon books are amazing and great fun to read.

So when DILLON teams up with SLY GANTLET in THE SPECIALISTS you know the results are going to be explosive.

I loved this book. It is a blast to read and you can tell that Joel and Derrick had a blast writing it. If you are a fan of either series then getting this book is a no-brainer. If you aren't familiar with these characters than, by all means, become familiar with them! These books are that good!

THE SPECIALISTS will be released this May.

I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio

Old Milwaukee Pin-Up Girls

You know the beer itself is shit. I can't stomach the stuff. But Old Milwaukee's branding campaign is something that I do admire.

I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio

(Relatively) Recent Work

Good Lord, I know! It's been so long since I've been here I'm not sure if I remember how to do this!

I may have posted some of these before but these are my most recent works. Two of them are for books that will come out at Christmas and one is for a book that's out now. The rest were just because I wanted to...

I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio

VAN ALLEN PLEXICO's SPACESHIPS

I painted a whole bunch o' spaceships recently and two of them...

...these two:

...have been spoken for!

Van Allen Plexico, author of the Shattering series, has agreed to write two short novels based on these pictures!

I'm very excited to see what he comes up with. I'll let you know when they are available and where you can get them.

It won't be long. I'm told he writes real fast.



I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio

SPACESHIPS!

Spaceships... I been painting 'em. I'm like the Bob Ross of the Cosmos.

I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio

DEBT'S PLEDGE

I know! It's been forever!

But here I am with nothing to say so I am giving it over to my other personality, Jack Mackenzie because, Damn if he doesn't have a book to promote!

Take it away, Jack:

My latest science fiction novel, Debt’s Pledge has been a long time coming.

I started this book many years ago. I wanted to write a military science fiction novel about a soldier who is down and out.

At the time I had been doing research on Ancient Rome and the conditions faced by soldiers in the years before Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon with his army. There was opportunity for reward and glory for Roman soldiers, but there was also much deprivation and hardship. I wanted to translate this situation to a traditional military science fiction milieu.

I also wanted to examine the idea of debt. Not just monetary debt, or the debt that a society exacts upon its citizens, I wanted to try to separate what individuals owe to society separate from what is mandated by taxation.

What I discovered, as I wrote, is that we, as individuals owed the existence we have in the present to those who came before us. This seems obvious, though sometimes we forget how much of what we have today we owe to those who came before us. Not just fathers and mothers, but “founding” fathers are owed a debt by all of us in the present. A simple experience like going out for a meal represents an immense societal effort over many years to create the situations where today restaurants and fast food outlets are commonplace and affordable.

Even the simple act of flushing a toilet is the result of decades, even centuries of hard work and building of complicated infrastructure. For that hard work and ingenuity, we owe a debt.

What I also discovered was that the debt goes both ways.

It’s fashionable now to talk about leaving a better world for our children (as if our ancestors didn’t want the same things for us) but do we really appreciate what that means. Parents will sacrifice and work hard for their own children and I am no exception, but what about the many children who are unborn today and who may never be born. What debt do we owe to them?

The concept of debt becomes more nebulous and contention at this point but while I was writing I wanted to explore a situation where that concept suddenly became clear. I think that I was successful in doing that in Debt’s Pledge.

I wrote the first draft of this novel and most of the second well before the global economic crisis happened. World events have borne out much of what I had been thinking at the time and, I hope, have made this story even more relevant and timely now than when I started.

Certainly you can read the book and enjoy it as an exciting, military, space opera adventure. The book contains spaceships, space travellers, future soldiers, aliens (and some really badass aliens) enough to content the lovers of science fiction, military SF and Space Opera.

But there is also a human story mixed into all that, and some thoughts on the relationship between individuals and society and what each owes the other. That is what Harlan Ellison refers to as the “fibre” hidden within the story. I’m quite pleased at the way it made it into the narrative.

I am also happy with the characters that developed and grew along the way. Some were created consciously and others just kind of showed up during the writing. This is their story and I am pleased with the way that it has been told. I believe I was able to stay out of their way sufficiently to allow them to tell the tale as it needed to be. That, for a writer, is the best feeling. It’s like some sort of magic has been invoked and it has infused itself into the text.

Debt’s Pledge is available now at Amazon.com for the kindle. It will soon be available in other e-formats as well as a print edition soon afterwards. Personally I think you owe it to yourself to check it out, maybe even buy a copy. If you have already purchased a copy, then sincerely, thank you.

I am in your debt.

I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio

THE SHATTERING

Cover art I did for an omnibus edition of Van Allen Plexico's The Shattering. I didn't realize until now that he had not written that scene when I delivered the cover art, yet he described it to me in such detail I could "see" it in my mind. Obviously what I was seeing jived with the author's vision.

That's gratifying for me as an artist but aside from that I am amazed that a scene could be so well thought out two years in advance of the actual writing. Now that's planning ahead!

You can find the first volumes in the series and more from Van Allan Plexico at www.whiterocketbooks.com

I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio

SAY HEY (I LOVE YOU)

Michael Franti & Speahead.

I love this song and I love all you crazy blogger people who follow me!

I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio

SOLD OUT

Here is the cover art that I did for Joel Jenkin's newest Gantlet Brothers novel: SOLD OUT!

You can read all about it here.

I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio