Archive | March, 2015

Still in the works

12 Mar

The White-Silver HouseTwo books are still in editing.

In late November, I completed the final drafts of The White-Silver House, which is the fifth and final book of the fantasy series, The Day Magic Died. Soon afterward, I also completed The Man with Two Eyes, the second Nascent Payne mystery.

I turned those over to my team of critical readers for their input. I have not received input from even half of them yet.

I don’t blame them, however. For one thing, they’re all volunteers. They’re doing this to help me.

It’s also important to note that four of the five had major life changes in the last few months: an unexpected move; a new child; new jobs; etc.

The Man with Two EyesSo I am trying to prod them without being a pest – which is a tough balancing act when you’re already sort of a pest like I am. I’ll keep you posted …

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A chance meeting in Austin

10 Mar
Photo by Daniel Mayer

Photo by Daniel Mayer

I’m headed back to the place where everything changed.

Two years ago I was well along in drafting my series, The Day Magic Died. I just had no idea what I would do with it.

It seemed it would be problematic for publishers. I was a first-time novelist, and it’s tough to break into book publishing. It’s also not so much a series of five books, as it is a single huge story in five volumes. I was thinking I probably had to at least have a couple of the volumes written, and all of them drafted, before a publisher would look at them.

Even then, it seemed unlikely that a conventional publisher would commit to publishing all five books.

That’s where my thinking was when I went to South by Southwest, and met Hugh Howey.

I didn’t know who he was until I went to a panel on the future of publishing. He was on the panel, representing independently published authors, because he was — and is — a highly successful independently published author. I was intrigued by what I heard, so I went to his book signing afterward. There weren’t many people there, so I was able to talk with him for a while. Maybe too long. Eventually he told me that he had to go use the restroom.

But what I learned was enough for me to decide to publish my series, The Day Magic Died, for the Kindle and in paperback, myself.

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Not yet

9 Mar

I’m not dead.

Yet.

I didn’t quit writing.

It’s just, well, the decision to wait until I had a milestone to report to you, was not a good decision.

The White-Silver House, Book 5 of the series, The Day Magic Died, is still in progress. So is the second Nascent Payne mystery, The Man with Two Eyes. More on those soon.

I’m also working on several other books, which I’ll also tell you more about, soon.

For now, I just want to say … I’m back.

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