Some Books I Really Enjoyed In 2012

I read just under sixty books this year, counting novels and short story collections and graphic novels and audiobooks (but not counting lit journals or other magazines). I enjoyed many of those books. Below are the books that I really enjoyed, in no particular order except in which I read/listened to them (I've also specified whether they were ebook or hardcover or paperback, for those who care about such things). Novels:

• 11/22/63 by Stephen King (hardcover)
• THE ODDS by Stewart O’Nan (hardcover)
• TELL NO ONE by Harlan Coben (ebook)
• GONE FOR GOOD by Harlan Coben (ebook)
• CATCHING FIRE by Suzanne Collins (ebook)
• THE SISTERS BROTHERS by Patrick deWitt (ebook)
• WESTLAKE SOUL by Rio Youers (ebook)
• MOCKINGJAY by Suzanne Collins (ebook)
• SAMSON AND DENIAL by Robert Ford (ebook)
• PINES by Blake Crouch (ebook)
• THE LAST KIND WORDS by Tom Piccirilli (ebook)
• CLOUD ATLAS by David Mitchell (ebook)
• BIG MARIA by Johnny Shaw (ebook)

Stories:

• THE WEATHER STATIONS by Ryan Call (ebook)
• 8 POUNDS: EIGHT TALES OF CRIME, HORROR & SUSPENSE by Chris F. Holm (ebook)
• FULLY LOADED: The Complete and Collected Stories of Blake Crouch (ebook)
• SUDDENLY, A KNOCK AT THE DOOR by Etgar Keret (ebook)
• THROTTLE by Joe Hill and Stephen King (ebook)
• SCAR TISSUE by Marcus Sakey (ebook)

Nonfiction:

• SH*T MY DAD SAYS by Justin Halpern (ebook)

Audiobooks:

• THE AFFAIR by Lee Child, read by Dick Hill
• CREOLE BELLE by James Lee Burke, read by Will Patton
• BOSSYPANTS by Tina Fey, read by Tina Fey
• THE DETACHMENT by Barry Eisler, read by Barry Eisler
• GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn, read by Julia Whelan and Kirby Heyborne

As you can see, the majority of the books I enjoyed were read digitally. I don't think the ereading experience swayed my opinion one way or the other when it came to each individual work, but I do find myself preferring digital more and more. Maybe that's why it's been taking me a few weeks so far to get through THE TWELVE by Justin Cronin and I'm not even 200 pages into it yet -- I'm reading the hardcover, instead of the ebook, which would be much more convenient as I would pretty much have it with me wherever I go. As I'm not about to take the hardcover around with me everywhere, the only chance I have to read it is at home, and when I'm at home, I find myself concentrating on other things ... like reading on my Kindle. Or, who knows, maybe the book itself just isn't as good as THE PASSAGE.

As is usually the case, there aren't a lot of women on the list, which reflects poorly on my reading selections. (I've got Jennifer Egan and Ann Patchett and Tana French, as well as many others, on my TBR pile, so don't crucify me!)

So anyway, that's what I read and enjoyed this year. How about you?

The Next Big Thing

Last week Tim Lebbon (have you listened to our podcast yet???) tagged me in his "The Next Big Thing" blog post thingy. It’s an ongoing process where one writer answers a series of questions (see below!), and then tags 5 others writers (see below the below!) who get to do it all again the following week. Sounds like fun, right? So here's the answers to these questions about the upcoming novel I co-authored with David B. Silva (below those questions, the names of five hapless writers who must continue this blog chain or else they'll be hit by a bus ... or something less extreme.)

1) What is the title of your next book?

Walk the Sky.

2) Where did the idea come from for the book?

Back in high school I wrote a weird western short story called "The Cactus." It was accepted for some weird western zine, which ended up folding before my story was published. So I set the story aside and sort of forgot about it while at the same time I didn't. I always knew I wanted to come back to it, but to do so much more. Then, when the opportunity came to do a collaboration with Dave Silva, I asked him if he was interested in writing a weird western and he said sure.

3) What genre does your book fall under?

Weird western. WHY ARE YOU MAKING ME REPEAT MYSELF?

4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Hard to say, as the book isn't even out yet and nobody knows who these characters are. But I think Daniel Day-Lewis would be good for one character, and maybe Jeremy Renner for another character.

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Two men, on a run from a posse set to kill them, come across a young mute boy in the middle of the desert ... a boy who draws the letters DED into the dirt when asked about the nearest town.

6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

It's a short novel, almost 40,000 words, so it wouldn't really be worth my agent's time to try to shop it around. And quite honestly, I don't have much interest in working with traditional publishers these days. It will, however, be published by a small press publisher as a limited edition hardcover. Then, awhile later, Dave and I will release paperback and digital versions.

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

Over a year, which is strange because the book is so short. But we both took our time, sending chapters back and forth while working on other projects, and are both pleased with how it turned out.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Not many weird westerns out there, which is one of the reasons I wanted to write this book, but notable weird westerns include Dead in the West by Joe Lansdale and, of course, Stephen King's Dark Tower saga has elements of western and horror.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I don't want to speak for Dave, but I wanted to work in a genre that hasn't been overdone quite yet.

10) What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?

It's great. Like, really, really, really great. And hey, there's an excerpt of Walk the Sky in my and Dave's most recent ebook At the Meade Bed & Breakfast (there's also a special giveaway contest!).

Now, I'm passing on the torch(es?) to these five awesome writers. Be sure to check out their blogs next Wednesday to see what they've been working on. And hey, buy some of their books while you're at it!

• Maurice Broaddus
• Joseph D'Agnese
• J. F. Gonzalez
• Barry Napier
• Kelli Owen

In Which Maurice Broaddus And I Talk About Dark Faith (And Politics)

Maurice Broaddus is a very busy man. Not only is he the author of The Knights of Breton Court novels (the omnibus newly released and cheap on Kindle -- grab it!), but every year he hosts Mo*Con, a great convention focused on conversations revolving around horror literature and spirituality. Oh, and with Jerry Gordon he edited the anthology Dark Faith in 2010, and both men just released a follow-up called Dark Faith: Invocations. Today Maurice and I talk about his novels, his convention, and the latest Dark Faith anthology -- all before getting to the really juicy stuff, like this blog post and this blog post. Even better, Maurice has been kind enough to offer up two (2) copies of Dark Faith: Invocations to give away. To learn how to win a copy, listen and enjoy.

In Which Maurice Broaddus And I Talk About Dark Faith (And Politics)

I Have Created A Monster

So remember how last week I talked about this tweet and how it had been retweeted nearly 400 times and I had my 15 minutes of Twitter fame? Yeah, I pretty much figured things would fizzle out over the weekend, but that wasn't the case. It kept getting retweeted and favorited again and again. In fact, William Gibson and Jodi Picoult even went to so far as to retweet it. Even right now as I type this the tweet is being retweeted and favorited. Sorta wild as, again, the tweet was never supposed to be much of anything at all.

As I mentioned last week, I was engaged by several people, either agreeing with the tweet or disagreeing. And this weekend was a lot more of the same. The most common counterpoint is that a writer writes a book and it can sell a million times, but a barista only makes one cup of coffee per person. Okay, as I mentioned before, the coffee/book thing isn't a great analogy. It was never supposed to be profound. But the point, really, is nowadays people don't want to pay for digital content. For them if it's not tangible, then they shouldn't have to pay for it. Many who tweeted me saw this point and agreed. Others still harped on the whole apples and oranges comparison (not to mention six bucks is way too expensive for a cup of coffee -- I had meant to put specialty coffee but it wouldn't fit in the original tweet). The former, I believe, are writers (and app developers, who also chimed in); the latter ... not writers (or app developers).

Also, judging by many of the responses, people seem to think writers sell a lot of books and make a lot of money. Which, of course, is very far from the truth. But that's the mindset, it seems, at least currently.

More than one person has congratulated me on the success of this tweet, and I'm like, it's just a stupid tweet. It doesn't mean anything. It's not like it has translated to a bunch of book sales or something. I've gained quite a few followers in the last couple of days, which is nice I guess, but anybody who knows me knows I don't really care about stuff like that. The only thing I have really come to learn from this whole experience is that being famous must be extremely exhausting.

Now, let me state clearly, I am not saying I am famous or even close to it. But famous actors and writers who have hundreds of thousands if not millions of followers on Twitter, they deal with the barrage of mentions every day. It becomes time-consuming skimming through all of them. As I mentioned, I only engaged a few, because I didn't have time or the patience to engage everyone. Normally if someone tweets me, I try to make some kind of response. After all, Twitter really is supposed to be social, a good conversation. But with what I experienced here ... it's like being on stage and a whole crowd of people yelling at you at once.

So anyway, my 15 minutes of Twitter fame has been extended a bit. So far I've had nearly 4,000 retweets, 700 favorites. So my question: where can I turn all that Twitter currency in for cash?

My Fifteen Minutes Of Twitter Fame

So earlier today I sent out a tweet, as I am apt to do, and this happened:

What can we learn from this? Who the hell knows. When you think about it, the tweet isn't really that profound. It can definitely be worded better. I had wanted to put "months and months" instead of "a year" but it just wouldn't fit. Also, in retrospect, I would have ended it with "too much" instead of "too high." And, of course, comparing a cup of coffee to a book is like comparing apples and popsicles (hint: you can't really compare them). The price of $4.99, too ... it certainly could have been $9.99 or anything else, but I figured $4.99 was a pretty low cost for a novel, which made it even more ridiculous when people complain it's too expensive. Still, it seemed to have struck a chord with a bunch of folks, so I guess that's a good thing.

Here's the background: today I happened upon an article about Starbucks and an upgrade to their app (or maybe it was a new app) and it mentioned how they were now making it possible to tip using the app, and it got me thinking about, hey, as a writer, we don't get tips, and then I remembered that analogy Dean Wesley Smith always says how a cup of coffee blah blah blah (note: I don't really agree with him) and so, as I am apt to do, I typed up a quick tweet and sent it and then one of my followers retweeted it and then one of their followers retweeted it and, like that proverbial snowball, it became viral. I mean, hey, Scott effin Westerfeld retweeted me.

Now, I know a thing about going viral. Well, okay, I really don't, as I don't think anybody knows exactly how things go viral. A lot of people try, and a lot of them fail, though some do manage it. Most times, the things that go viral were never really meant to go viral. Take Hint Fiction, for instance. When I wrote that original essay, I never would have imagined it would one day become what it has become, but there you go.

So anyway, I've had my fifteen minutes of Twitter fame, and it was very odd. Besides people retweeting it, there were those who tweeted me saying how much they agreed, those who tweeted me saying how much they disagreed, those who tweeted arguing over just how much a cup of coffee is and how some people don't tip their baristas, and some even sending me links as counterpoint. Some of them I engaged with, others I did not.

Because, really, when it comes right down to it, it's a friggin tweet. There's no profound statement being said here -- at least one was not intended. I was just thinking about how writers do a lot of work and are never given tips, and how it's fascinating in our culture that certain professions are tipped, others are not. How, really, it has become required to tip at certain places, and other places not so much.

But, again, you can't really compare coffee and books.

Besides, writers do receive tips from readers. If anything, I think the best tip a reader can give a writer whose work they enjoy is to help spread the word.

It may not be a monetary compensation, but it means the world to that writer. Or at least it should. Any writer who doesn't appreciate their readers is an asshole and doesn't deserve those readers to begin with.

Oh, and yeah, this happened too:

Something tells me everything else in my Twitter career will be downhill from here.