Still Here, Still Working #amwriting #horror #scifi #fiction

Just a quick update and then I'm going to skedaddle.

Deathform has been out for a few months, and it's been great to see a number of kind reviews drop in on Amazon and Goodreads. It's always helpful to see those posted, so thank you to everyone who has taken the time to share your thoughts! If you've read the book and haven't posted a review yet, I would be immensely grateful if you did. Indie presses have low exposure already, as do indie authors, and The Great Algorithm that controls the internet requires your participation for others to find the book. You cannot simply opt out of The Great Algorithm. You must feed The Great Algorithm. You wouldn't want to anger The Great Algorithm, would you?

Though I would like to come back to the universe of Deathform eventually, my current novel-in-progress is an unrelated project. I can't say too much about it yet, but I'll be concentrating on it for the next few months, so expect few updates to this site. I may try to tackle a short story here and there, but when you're working on something as lengthy and demanding as a novel, I find it's best to focus on one thing at a time.

Alright. Back to work.

Deathform Paperback Temporarily Unavailable, But Will Be Back Soon!

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For the next few days, the paperback version of Deathform will not appear on Amazon. There was a minor formatting issue in the early pages, so my publisher has sent a corrected version to be re-processed. It usually takes around five days, at which point the paperback will go live again.

It's actually pretty cool to me that this is possible. I wish we had caught the issue before the book went up, but just a few years ago, any error would have been immortalized in print until there was a second run of the book. Kinda nifty that print-on-demand services allow books to be more like living documents now.

As soon as I see the paperback is up again, I'll let you know.

In the meantime, you can still buy the book on Kindle.

Countering Bad Advice for Beginning Writers: Yes, Genre Does Matter #fiction #writing

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For whatever reason, this was on my mind this morning, so I thought I’d share. In a way, it’s a PSA for creative writing teachers, especially for anyone teaching fiction. It's also a heads up to beginning writers who plan to query an agent or publisher at some point.

All my life, I’ve been told not to worry about what genre I’m writing. A number of published authors who visited both writing programs I attended said this. A (smaller) number of my professors said this. “Just write the thing. Genre is a marketing term. Let the publisher figure out how to market the book.”

While it's true that genre is a marketing term, and you should just write the thing, the idea that you don't have to market your work is toxic bullshit. 100% pure manure, fresh in the field.

Right now, I’m working hard on what I hope will be my second published novel, and I think constantly about how I am going to market it, because when you complete a manuscript, it doesn’t magically end up in the hands of a publisher or agent, who then says, “Bingo! I know exactly how we’ll sell this thing!” In reality, the first step—arguably the most important step on the writer’s end—is that you, the author, have to get an agent or a publisher excited about the thing you’ve written. Like it or not, that is a form of marketing. And in order to do that effectively, you have to have a clear handle on what you wrote, who may want to read it, and how you can define it for that particular audience. Not only is this key to writing a good query letter, it is key to finding the right agent or publisher in the first place.

I’ve read numerous articles from literary agencies bemoaning authors who have mislabeled their work in their query letters. “Do your research,” they say. “Know what genre you’re working in. Know who represents that genre.” And these are the people who will be marketing the book to a publisher! We’re not even talking about marketing to readers yet!

I don’t think the authors and professors who’ve given this bad advice are dumb or malicious. I think some of them have forgotten what it’s like to query. Or maybe this advice was more sound in the past. I can't speak to what worked ten years ago, but today, the market is very small and extremely competitive, with more writers and less readers. Agents and publishers have less resources to dedicate to all aspects of their jobs. They're busy. Most--if not all--get paid on commission. They need books that will sell. If you send a query that says something like, “Here’s a novel I wrote. I’m not sure what it is, but I think it's great, and you will too,” it's going to end up in a little trash can on a webpage or desktop.

How does this translate to writers? Do you decide to write something you think will be marketable, and let that guide you? Do you write the book you want to write, then work hard at defining it? Do you find a niche genre, research its conventions, and then try your hand at it?

That’s up to you. But whatever you do, ignore anyone who tells you genre is not important. And do yourself a favor and research genres for yourself. If you’re not sure how to define your project, there’s a good chance you haven’t read widely enough.

And, finally, to anyone who has ever told a beginning writer that genre is not important: for the love of God, stop.

 

Note: this post is geared toward traditional publishing. If you're self-publishing, you'll handle every aspect of the novel from the top down, so knowing your genres will be even more important.

Deathform Cover Reveal #sci-fi #thriller #horror #fiction

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After some collaborative back-and-forth with Severed Press, which included me sending three terrible pencil drawings that are too embarrassing to share, we have it. The cover.

Check it out:

I love it. The lighting, the design of the spacesuit, the otherness of the creature, and its explosive violence. I hope it gets your imagination going. More importantly, I hope it makes you want to read the book. It's a pretty good representation of what the novel has in store. I'm not certain who the artist is, but I'll ask.

Severed Press has informed me that the book may be released on Amazon as early as next week. I don't yet have an exact date, and I may not have one right up until the release, but if I learn anything, I'll keep you posted. I'm looking into holding a small release party at an indie bookstore near me, but I don't know if this is possible given the constraints. Severed Press is based out of Tasmania, and most of their sales are in eBook format or print-on-demand, so we'll see. I'd like to do something semi-official to kick things off. Check back for details.

Severed Press to Publish My Novel, Deathform

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I'm extremely thrilled to announce that my debut novel, Deathform, has found a home at Severed Press. You can read a basic synopsis of the novel here for now, and I will be updating with new info as I receive it. Words can't express how glad I am to be joining their catalogue of talented writers.

I'm especially grateful to my beta readers, Ashley McNamara Fritz, Ben Wheeler-Floyd, Sam Hastings, and of course my amazing fiance, Carey Feagan, who in a little less than two weeks I will be able to call my amazing wife.

So, all in all, not a bad month.

Horror Story Forthcoming in 9Tales Told in the Dark

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I received word this morning that my short horror story, "Sleep Study," will be published in Bride of Chaos's next issue of 9Tales Told in the Dark. It's a very fun horror magazine published exclusively on Kindle. The next issue should be up around June or July.

In the meantime, check out their latest issue here!

 

Popping In, Popping Out

Hi there. Quick update and some thoughts.

This post is mostly to say I'm still here, plugging away at my novel-in-progress, and it's a blast. The more I work with this manuscript, the more excited I am to get it into the world. I'm talking about Deathform, of course, which you can read about under "My Writing" on this site. My beta readers have given great feedback, so I'm finishing up a new round of edits. Hoping to begin querying agents and publishers in the next few weeks. Would love to have more news then.

Because this last semester was a nightmarish experiment in overworking myself at three universities, moving to a new apartment, getting more involved with my union, and various other adventures, I haven't had much time to think about this website, and unfortunately had little time to dedicate to writing. Now the heat is off, and I’m feeling a bit more sane, mostly because I have time to write again.

Piece of advice: Be kind to yourself when you need to focus on real life. I’ve known for a while that I’m miserable when I’m not writing. But, just sometimes, you need to prioritize financial stability. Money is a serious obstacle for aspiring writers. Nix that. It's an issue for all writers, aspiring or otherwise. All artists, in fact. For roughly three months, all I could do was slog through 60+ student essays a week, then let my brain recuperate while binging on Netflix. On top of that, as an adjunct, I wasn't getting paid very well, and two of the three universities I slaved for haven't asked me back in the spring. Well, one did, but it was about two days before the semester started, and I've already taken a part-time job I enjoy and that doesn't give me homework. Anyway. You can (and should) read more about the adjunct crisis elsewhere.

So, the past semester was a learning experience for me. After putting my writing on the back burner and having virtually nothing to show for it, I won't be doing it again. Without sounding too ranty, I'm done working for universities that hire you for one semester and dump you. It's not only disrespectful, insulting, or harmful, but it's downright fucked up (to use fancy ethical terminology), and I aim to do what I can to help others in that situation by continuing to speak out and work with my union.

In the meantime, I'll be hitting the gas on some new projects. Now that Deathform is getting close to the light at the end of the tunnel, I'd like to turn my attentions back to "Frankenstein Love" and its possible sequels. The first novella has been done for a while, but I aim to self-publish it (probably) and the sequel at the same time. No promises, though. Sometimes projects fall through the cracks because another rises up to take their place, and we're all better for it. Who knows. Self-publishing may not be the right route for that series, either.

Also on my radar: sci fi / horror stories. I'd like to get some shorter works done this year, but it's a form I've always struggled with. The first story I wrote in a college-level writing class turned into a 70 page novella about which my professor (now a colleague) said, "I think this has to be a novel to work the way you want it to."

So there's that.

Still, I'd like to flex my short story muscles a bit. If it doesn't work out, well. One of the first gifts my fiance ever gave me was a drawing of Cormac McCarthy along with the quote, "Even if what you're working on doesn't go anywhere, it will help with the next thing you're doing. Make yourself available for something to happen."

Sound advice, that.

One last thing: Expect less posts like this in the future. They're time consuming and a little distracting, and I tried the whole public journal thing when I was a moody teenager. It didn't work out. I'll drop in now and then if I have something to say; otherwise, feel free to follow me on Twitter for some inane non sequiturs, or follow me on Facebook for the occasional public post. If I go quiet, it's because I'm working. Please knock.

Some Things That Happened And Some Things That Are Happening

The fall semester has begun.

I am teaching at three schools. Five classes total.

It's going to be a lot of work.

It is already a lot of work.

About two weeks ago, I finished the second draft of Deathform, and it is a blast. I'll soon be taking it through another minor editing phase before handing it off to my beta readers.

I cannot express without many exclamation points how excited I am to share this project.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are moving to a new apartment exactly 8 days from today, and I think my head might fall off of my body. It may have fallen off already and been packed into one of our many cardboard boxes. I am not sure.

Working on a new short horror story. Haven't settled on a title yet. 

Would you tell me if you saw me walking around and my body did not have a head on it?

A ghost kept poking me in the thigh last night, waking me from a deep sleep in the early hours of the morning. I think the ghost does not want me to be well rested. 

There's got to be a better way to find a happy medium in regards to air conditioned buildings. Sweaters are one option. Carrying around a little space heater is another.

I don't know that it was a ghost that woke me up, but I'm pretty sure it was a ghost, you know?

So0o0o0o yeah. How are things with you?

What's all this hubbub about a "second Earth"?

in

The title of this post isn't some kind of rhetorical question that I'm about to answer with a sense of journalistic poise--ah, let's explain why this is a huge discovery. It's a question I'm posing because, well, I'm confused.

Obviously, news about a newly discovered "habitable zone" planet in a distant star system is going around social media this week, stirring up discussions around the possibilities of extraterrestrial life, planets worth exploring, our humble size compared to the vastness of the universe, etcetera. But we've discovered plenty of exoplanets already, many of them in the "goldilocks zone." Just take a look at this Wikipedia page.

So why is this particular discovery blowing up across social media?

Maybe it has something to do with the terminology researchers are using to describe it. A "bigger, older cousin to Earth" and what-not. In terms of size, it's the most like Earth that we've discovered so far, so I guess that's interesting. Or maybe something else is going on. Something that makes me a little squirmy. 

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm all about astronomy news being in the mainstream, especially when many people get genuinely excited about it, but part of me has to wonder if we have so lost touch with what's happening in astronomy that this discovery feels like big news when it kind of isn't. Researchers have been at this for a while, making similar discoveries for years. In fact, best estimates put the number of Earth-sized exoplanets in the habitable zones of other stars around 40 billion. And that's just in the Milky Way. We've found one. Neat, I guess.

Maybe I'm being a bit of a curmudgeon. My car is in the shop, after all, and I think I'm fighting a cold. Not the best time to post something to the internet. But, frankly, this feels like a minor form of sensationalism to me. And maybe that's nitpicking. Maybe I should shut up and be happy every time science is in the mainstream, even if terms like "God particle" and "Earth 2.0" get thrown around alongside artist renderings of planets that don't actually exist. Okay. I will try. But you know what I'm really afraid of? I'm afraid of science news turning into the Weather Channel website.

"SHOCKING NEW FINDINGS PREDICT LARGE ROCKS MOVING VERY FAST THROUGH SPACE."

"EARTH 2.0 DISCOVERED. YOUR TWIN MAY LIVE THERE, BUT WITH A SCARY MUSTACHE!"

Yuck.

Life on a Comet? Hmm.

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Well, this is pretty interesting, if just another mystery we don't have the ability to solve right now. Seems a couple of scientists are proposing that comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (the one with the Philae probe on its surface) is displaying some signs of biological life.

Check out the article right here.

What's potentially troubling about this report is that one of the scientists making this proposal sounds a bit bitter that his proposed equipment didn't make it aboard the project before it launched. Could this be an instance of one scientist trying a little too hard to throw an "I told you so" in the face of colleagues, or is it that this person is very focused on searching for signs of life, and is therefore one of the first to notice them on the comet? I can't say, but it should be noted that this same scientist proposed that the flu pandemic of 1918 originated from an alien microbe. Seems a bit outlandish, yes?

Well, as things go in science, the most responsible thing to do in this case is keep investigating and wait for others to come to their own independent conclusions, then follow up with some real world investigation. Unfortunately, without the proper equipment, it might be a long long time (as in maybe never) before we get conclusive evidence about potential life on this particular comet.