October Update

Well, I'm a little over 100K in my latest work-in-progress, averaging a couple thousand words or so on the weekends. Haven't been able to do much writing during the work week, but that's to be expected while the school year is in full swing. This is the longest novel I've written in the past seven years, since City of Glass. It feels like I might be twenty or thirty thousand words away from the end, but I can't be sure. Various series of events have been leading toward a couple of unrelated showdowns, and I've already written one of them, so that leaves the other one to go. Building things up, taking character arcs through unexpected turning points, and then wrapping things up while leaving room for a potential sequel. That's the stuff.

On the reading front, I've made it two-thirds of the way through War and Peace, and I'm still enjoying it. The characters are everything. By this point, they seem about as real as they come. The way their lives intersect during war time, along with all the major and minor interpersonal conflicts Tolstoy weaves into the plot, is enough to keep me reading to the end. Honestly, I never thought I'd pick this one up, but I'm definitely glad I did. I also started The Iliad this month, but so far it's not as engaging as The Odyssey. Achilles is no Odysseus, and I'm finding it hard to root for him. But that could change. I'll give it time.

I've been listening to Tides From Nebula lately, another post-rock instrumental band I discovered through Freegal Music, and their guitar-infused ambient soundscapes are providing backdrops for the scenes I'm drafting this weekend. The style is a cross between Explosions in the Sky and pg.lost with plenty of their own unique flavor added in. I've been listening to the albums Safehaven and Earthshine, but I can't pick a favorite. Guess I'll have to listen to them a few more times.

Another 20K

The current work-in-progress is up to 80,000 words now, and all is going according to plan. That's not to say there haven't been any surprises along the way. As a plotting pantser, I map out the main events of each chapter before I write it, and I keep the overall story arc in mind, but anything and everything that happens in between is a writing-in-the-moment sort of thing. And that's where most of the fun happens. Supporting characters emerge from the sidelines to take the spotlight, main characters meet a sudden demise, bigger bad guys show up to throw a wrench in the works. Exploring the unknown is what keeps me going.

On the reading front, I've started War and Peace. After successfully tackling The Odyssey earlier this year, I figured I'd give another classic a go. Expecting dense, inaccessible prose, too many characters to keep track of, and a whole lot of period-piece scenes of drawing rooms and battlefields, I've been pleasantly surprised by the humanity of Tolstoy's characters. They leap off the page with all the quirks and foibles of the average person you might meet on the street, despite their Russian names and nicknames. And sure, there are plenty of drawing rooms and battlefields, but somehow the author makes them interesting, too. There's even some unexpected humor sprinkled throughout, which I always appreciate. All this to say, I'm actually enjoying it, and while it might take me a while, I'm planning to read all the way through.

Novel Territory

I crossed the threshold this week, and I'm pleased to announce that my work-in-progress The Last LawKeeper is officially a novel. At a little over sixty thousand words, it feels like the story is somewhere near the halfway point. The world is built, the characters are fleshed out, all the conflicts and mysteries are amping up. I've got plenty left to write, but I'm okay with how much I've been able to wordsmith over the course of the summer. At the end of this month, I'll be back at the day job (my 28th year in education), and I'm thinking I'll be able to churn out another 10K by then. That's the goal, anyway, and I'm sticking to it.

My reading playlist during this novel-writing process has been an interesting assortment. I always like to be in the middle of a good book or few while I'm drafting, and this time I've been strategic about finding my inspiration. I started out with Conan by Robert E. Howard for the epic action and adventure and world-building. Then I moved on to Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey to get a feel for the old-school western. Since then, I've been reading a collection of Ray Bradbury's early short stories, because I've always appreciated his poetic prose. And to top it off, I'm re-reading The Gunslinger by Stephen King, because one does not simply write a post-apocalyptic western without revisiting one of the best post-apocalyptic westerns of all time.

As far as my musical playlist goes, I've been listening to a bunch of instrumental post-rock courtesy of the local library: pg.lost, This Will Destroy You, Toundra, Collapse Under the Empire, and If These Trees Could Talk. The absence of lyrics keeps me focused on the words I'm slinging, and the atmospheric music works well as a soundtrack for all the scenes in my head. "Silent Hills" by Lanterna would work great as theme music, should The Last LawKeeper ever become a movie, streaming series, or video game. One can dream, right?

Audio Re-Release #3

The audio version of my novel City of Glass is now available (again) wherever audiobooks are sold. Steve Campbell did a standup job bringing this story to life, so if you haven't heard it already (or even if you have), be sure to check it out:

Amazon     Apple     Audible

The future is now. 

The children of the remnant are adults living in the 10 Domes of Eurasia, self-sustaining biospheres along the Mediterranean Sea. Aerocars fly, clones work as security officers, and every citizen's words and actions are monitored via their neural implants. Peace reigns over all—until a group of terrorists targets government buildings, and Chancellor Persephone Hawthorne is kidnapped. 

Sera Chen, Dome 1 law enforcer, is drawn into the conflict after chasing a curfew violator capable of leaping from one skyscraper to another. When her augments go offline due to a localized EMP burst, she starts hearing voices. The band of survivors in North America is fractured. Daiyna roams the Wastes with a bounty on her head, refusing to confront her demons. Samson and Shechara target UW raiders who are pillaging ruins for resources the remnant needs to survive. James Bishop struggles against unexpected obstacles to be reunited with his family. And Luther is determined to find a way into Eurasia to meet the twenty children taken from Eden. 

As their lives converge, unlikely alliances will form to combat an emergent enemy with plans to undermine the course of humanity's future.

Staying the Course

I'm up to 40K in my current WiP, and things are going pretty well. Still averaging 1K a day and plotting each chapter before I write it. The world-building and character development have been a blast; it's a slow-burn post-apocalyptic western, and I'm dropping plenty of mysterious breadcrumbs along the way. If all goes according to plan, I'll be at 70K by the start of the next school year. Then I'll be lucky if I sling a few hundred words a day. But every step in the right direction is progress.

The current goal is to send this manuscript to Tor and Baen in December, and if they don't want it, I'll publish it myself. I've already got the cover art ready, just in case. My contact at Tor is the editor I worked with on Girl of Great Price. She's looked at a few of my other manuscripts over the years, and I've appreciated her feedback. My contact at Baen is the editor who updated me over the course of eight years while they kept BackTracker under consideration. Fingers crossed they won't take that long this time.

Am I having second thoughts about going full indie now that Amazon's algorithm has changed and the market is being inundated by AI-generated slop? Not at all. I'd rather my backlist be under my complete control, regardless. But I'm not going to limit myself to only one route. I never have. Do I regret firing my agent seven years ago? Nope. That was a bad decision from the start. I only went with him because he was the last name on a list of over a hundred agents who'd declined. He was willing to represent me, so I overlooked a few glaring warning signs at the get-go. Will I try snagging another agent at some point? I don't think so, but who knows?

Over the past sixteen years of my Journey through the Published Land, I've had a lot of good experiences and an equal amount of the other kind, but one thing that's remained constant is my passion for the process. I enjoy telling a good story. And I appreciate getting better at it with every story I tell. That won't ever change, no matter what.

Summer Sale

In case you haven't visited my author store in a while, now's a great time to take a look around. All of my series starters have been marked down to 99¢ and a few of my short story collections are currently free. Browse, buy, download, tell your friends and neighbors. Happy reading!

Start Here

Writing Update

I've passed the 20K mark on my current work-in-progress, a post-apocalyptic western featuring an Old Testament city of refuge. It's a place where people who commit involuntary manslaughter can be safe from retribution, but it's also a haven for outcasts of all stripes. I'm enjoying the characters and the world-building, and I'm grateful for those twenty-five pages of notes I scribbled down way back in May. My past self was really thinking ahead. Thank you, past self.

Considering how burnt-out I was at the end of the school year, I wasn't sure I'd be able to commit to a new project this summer. Part of me considered taking a couple months off on the writing front. But I'm glad I stuck with it, drafting maybe two hundred words a day at first, then graduating to five or six hundred, then more than five or six hundred. It all adds up eventually. This week, I've managed to average a little over a thousand a day, and that feels pretty darn good.

My last two books were on the shorter side, around 50K-60K, but I can already tell this one will probably be over 100K when complete. We'll see if it grows or shrinks at that point, during edits and revisions. My Spirits of the Earth novels and BackTracker are between 120K and 150K, and the pacing of this WiP feels like it's in the same ballpark. (But what do I know? I'm just the one writing the dang thing.) For now, I'm thinking it will be a big standalone book, but that could change as well, depending on sales. Maybe it'll be Book 1 in a new series...

Recently I realized that 16 of my novels are written in first-person, and 10 are in third-person. The last two or three trilogies I've worked on have been first-person narratives. So it's kind of refreshing to take a break from that and go back to third-person. Four protagonists so far, each with their own unique perspective, and a narrative that's bigger than all of them combined. It was an adjustment at first, but I'm in the groove now, and I appreciate being able to tell the story through more than one pair of eyes.

Audio Re-Release #2

The audio version of my novel Tomorrow's Children is now available (again) wherever audiobooks are sold. Steve Campbell did a great job bringing this story to life, so if you haven't heard it already, be sure to check it out:

Amazon     Apple     Audible

The future is in their hands. 

The post-apocalyptic world is bigger than the remnant imagined. Across the ocean, the domed cities of Eurasia have survived the nuclear holocaust that ravaged the rest of the planet. But only the survivors from the North American Wastes can give the sterile Eurasians what they need most in order to continue existing as a society: children. 

Sergeant James Bishop, United World Marine, leads his team across the desert wasteland in order to make first contact with survivors in Eden, who are rumored to have a lab full of viable embryos. Meanwhile Cain, a coastal warlord dedicated to repopulating the planet, follows the will of Gaia, a malicious spirit of the earth with no love for humankind. Margo, telepathic geneticist responsible for designing the next generation, struggles to balance the will of a selfish dictator with what's best for humanity. And Tucker, an invisible man on a mission, carries precious cargo across the Wastes in an effort to rally a group of survivors into action against Eden. 

As their lives intersect, agendas collide and tensions reach a breaking point. Twenty unborn children in incubation chambers hang in the balance—along with the fate of the world.

Vic Boyo, Three in One

Collected in a single volume for the first time: all three novels in the Vic Boyo, Doofus Detective trilogy, now available wherever eBooks are sold. If you're a fan of old-school hard-boiled noir with plenty of action, adventure, and screwball comedy along the way, give these campy crime thrillers a chance. Only one thing stands between Vic Boyo and saving the day. Well, maybe a few things. But with a little luck and a whole lot of gumption, anything is possible—even for him.

Includes Double Murders Are Twice As Bad, Less Than Meets The Eye, and Witless Protection. Even some chuckles, to boot.

Get your copy today

Summer Plans

With the end of the school year fast approaching, it's time to look up from my gradebook and see what's ahead. I've got a few releases lined up for this summer—the Vic Boyo, Doofus Detective collection, as well as the reissued Spirits of the Earth audiobooks—but other than that, I won't have a series to continue or conclude. So what will I be doing when I'm not working on projects around the house, trying to stay in shape, or reading under our maple tree in the backyard?

Well, I've got twenty-five pages of notes for a new book I'd like to write. Assuming I'll eventually recover from my current burnout, I might start drafting it next month. Here's what I have so far: a post-apocalyptic western combining elements and characters from my novel BackTracker with my short stories "Live by the Ten, Die by the Gun," "Soulless in His Sight," "Sins of the Father," and "Like Clockwork." But without requiring the reader to be familiar with any of those tales.

That's right, a standalone novel (with the potential for sequels, as always) that takes place 200 years after the events of BackTracker in the Wild, Wild Wastes. Starring Boaz MacIntyre from "Live by the Ten," a grizzled middle-aged sheriff hard-wired to enforce the Ten Commandments, plus a few characters from BackTracker (who are somehow still alive two centuries later), as well as Boy from "Soulless" and the strange automaton from "Clockwork."

In a lawless, unforgiving world, one man dares to stand for what's right. Some call him crazy. Others: the Last LawKeeper. Or something like that. We'll see how it goes.