What I've Been Up To

Just realized I haven't updated the blog in a while. Yikes!

I've been meaning to keep things more regular around here (hey, not like that!) but have obviously been doing a poor job of it. I've just been busy, busy, busy. Here's a few things I've been working on ...

Legion, a standalone thriller that takes place in the Man of Wax universe but which is not part of the trilogy (think of it as a prequel of sorts), has gone through the initial editing phase and is currently with my agent and some other pre-readers. When will that be out? No idea, but a safe bet is sooner than later.

Bullet Rain, a standalone thriller that features Nova from No Shelter, is halfway complete. For a while I was pushing full-steam ahead on it, but then I got sidetracked on doing the edits for Legion and a few other things came up, and right now that's been put to the side. Basically, the book takes place right after the events of No Shelter and focuses on what trouble Nova gets into. It will eventually lead into the second Holly Lin novel The Devil You Know. When will it be out? Again, no idea, but hopefully within the next several months.

I was working on an essay for a project I was invited to submit to but bowed out when I realized the piece wasn't coming together as well as I would have liked. I really liked the idea I pitched, but it just wasn't working for me, and I'm not one to submit a subpar story/essay/whatever.

Currently working on what will probably be a novelette-sized story that I can't really talk more about at the moment, except that I'm really happy with where it's going and it should hopefully be out in the next month or two if all goes well.

Next month I start working on my portion of Refuge, a Jeremy Bishop novel that's being serialized by several other authors and which I talked about briefly here. I still don't know yet what my novella will be titled, but the brief outline I came up with passed muster (I hate outlining and, quite honestly, never do it, except for this project it was mandatory), and I think it will be a lot of fun. The deadline is November, I think, which will put some fire under my ass to get the thing done as soon as possible.

After all that, I hope to start working on the next Holly Lin novel (again, called The Devil You Know) and maybe even the third novel (Down In A Hole) before I finally begin on the third book in the Man of Wax trilogy, While Rome Burns.

But wait! some of you might say. Why not write the third MOW book FIRST???

Well, because No Shelter has been out much longer than Man of Wax, and it's a book that everyone seems to love and I've been slacking on telling more stories about Holly Lin and Nova, so that's why. Plus the third MOW book is going to be LONG, and I know already it's going to tire me out, while the Holly Lin books are just going to be a lot of fun to write. At least, that's how it was with the first one, so fingers crossed the same applies to the rest.

Actually, speaking of Holly Lin, if you haven't read the book yet, you might want to tune back in Friday for a special announcement ...

So that's what I've been up to.

What have YOU been up to?

On Professionalism

Yesterday Brian Keene wrote a blog post which took a member of the HWA to task for what makes a professional writer. It's good stuff. Go read it if you haven't had a chance. I'll wait. Back?

Okay, so Brian's post reminded me that I had talked about what makes a professional writer a couple years ago. In the post I mused that some might considered professional writers only those who write full-time. The truth at the time, though, was that hardly any writers actually wrote full-time. Even Joe Konrath, who I quoted, had said that more people play in the NFL than write full-time.

At least, that was the case in 2009.

Now, four years later, a lot of things have changed. With the rise of self-publishing, more and more writers are finding themselves able to write full-time.

Before I signed with my agent several years ago, his first question to me was what was my ultimate goal.

I said to write full-time.

He acknowledged that he had some clients who wrote full-time, but most didn't.

Because, let's face it, that was the reality of publishing back then. Writers worked their butts off for a measly advance and low royalties, and still needed to work a full-time job to make ends meet. Now writers have the option of saying no to the measly advances and low royalties to go a different route. Is that route always successful? Not at all. But at least they now have a choice, which is rather refreshing.

I've never been a member of a writers' organization. I've just never seen the point. The only organization that I think is worthwhile is the Writers Guild of America, because they actually offer health benefits and retirement to their members. Unfortunately, the only way to join is if you write for movies and TV. All other writers' organizations? If they offer health benefits, those benefits are hardly comprehensive.

Back when I started writing, I thought I wanted to join the HWA. But then I had many friends who were members and heard the ongoing drama and even witnessed much of it on the private message boards which I was able to access using a friend's account, and I realized that no, I had no interest in becoming a member. It baffled me why so many writers wanted to join and become active members, until I realized that everyone was basically concerned about the Bram Stoker Awards. Well, okay, not everyone, but a good majority. I even saw writers make sure to mention in their bios that they were active or associate members of the HWA or some other writers' organization, which always struck me as odd, because really who cares? Your regular readers don't care. They don't care if you're an active member of some organization or if your book is published by a major publishing house. How do I know this? Because look at all the successful self-published writers out there. Readers want to find good books, plain and simple. The rest -- being members of writers' organizations, being nominated for awards, etc -- simply helps the writer feel good about himself.

Awhile back, I saw someone on Facebook complain that many of the writers on the Kindle top 100 bestseller list for horror were writers that they hadn't ever heard of. It didn't make sense to them, because they weren't "name" authors, or even authors who they were familiar with. Because -- surprise! -- those authors were not members of the HWA. They did not troll message boards. They did not follow the "rules" set forth by the HWA on how to get published, whatever those are.

What's worth noting, in fact, is if I wanted to join a writers' organization, there's a very good chance I couldn't do so as an active member. It doesn't matter that I've sold tens of thousands of books. It doesn't matter that I even managed to get on the USA TODAY bestseller list without the help of any publisher. It doesn't matter that I sometimes make more in one month than a writer will make from an entire advance for one book sold to a major publisher. What matters -- in the eyes of those who run these writers' organizations -- is whether my books are published by a "real" publisher, whatever that means anymore.

But you know what? That's okay. If I wanted to become a member of any of these organizations, it might bother me. As it is, I'm just happy being a writer. Or hobbyist. Or whatever.

Writer's First Audiobook Payment

It came in the mail today from Audible for my June sales. That was fast! For some reason I figured it would take at least 60 days, which is the case with all my ebooks and paperbacks from other platforms. Anyway, I figured I would use this as an excuse to remind y'all you can download the audiobooks for only $1.99 if you've already purchased the Kindle editions via Audible. Enjoy!