It’s not a blog.
It’s been a year since I’ve blogged on my personal website. And it was six months before that since I’d posted and six months before that since the previous post. Three posts in two years, does not a blog make. I didn’t even remember to write about the completion of my sci-fi trilogy last summer (Hey! The Tin Whistle is out, the trilogy is complete! Read it now). So it’s time to face facts. For all practical purposes, I don’t have a “blog” anymore. I have a website. Once that was clear, then I knew I needed to spruce things Read more…
Parts of the whole
I’m working hard to finish the first draft The Tin Whistle, the final book of the Lattice Trilogy. It’s close enough that I’m thinking back to how and why I began writing these books. This is in some part fueled by nostalgia, as I know that I’m wrapping up a six and a half year project (counting from the time I first starting typing). But it’s also necessary: finishing up a trilogy means closing a lot of loops and bringing the story to a close in a way that harkens back to the beginning. For example: right now I’m working on a major scene in Read more…
The Scorpion Extraction
In the spring of 2015, a group of friends and I went to Portland, Oregon to “escape the room.” (An escape room, if you don’t know, is basically a chance to get locked in a small room with a group of friends or coworkers and have to figure your way by solving puzzles, figuring out clues, and then communicating with others in the room.) It was an absolute blast. I came away thinking that I wanted to create an escape room in Tacoma. The idea of an immersive experience with a ticking clock and lots of puzzles really appealed to me. Read more…
Here comes 2017
Last year, I set four goals for myself: Read more. Write more. Play more games. Spend more time outside. Here’s how I did. Read More According to Goodreads, I read 34 books in 2016, which is also what I read in 2015. True, at least four of those books were 800 pages or more. But I still want to step that up in 2017. I’m aiming for 40 books, which is about a book every week and a half. Write More In 2016, I hoped to finish the first draft of The Tin Whistle, the final book in my science fiction trilogy, Read more…
Year of Reading Women Wrapup
I finished my year of reading only women challenge at the end of April. I’ve been trying to assemble my thoughts since then. In some ways, it has helped to have a couple months of reading both men and women to get them sorted it out. What follows are some notes about my reading list and then some thoughts about “what does it all mean.”
Reading List
If this is the first time you’re reading about this here are my previous blog posts: first post second post third post fourth post. Read more…
How long does it take to write a novel?
When I was busy launching The Iron Harvest in January, I didn’t get much writing done on Book III, the final book of the trilogy. And then February and March I was focused on finishing my play. It’s a small literary comedy drama and is the opposite of The Lattice Trilogy in almost every way, but it was important for me to have a little bit of a break from the global stakes of my sci-fi books. Now that that’s behind me, many people want to know when I’m going to publish the final book. Well, I want to know that as much as anyone. Read more…
Selling The Iron Harvest
This was almost a very long post but instead I think it’s better to keep it short. In the six weeks since its release, I’ve sold 600 copies of The Iron Harvest. It’s dominated my sales in a way no other book I’ve written has before. I’ve sold thousands of books in a day before, but those were with discounted copies and usually expensive promotional costs. These sales have been full-priced copies and most of the marketing legwork was done months in advance. For contrast, it took me six months to sell that many copies of The Lead Cloak, and it Read more…
Looking ahead to a new year
Generally speaking, I try not to make a lot of dramatic resolutions at the end of the year. I’d rather set myself up for success, not failure. Sometimes I don’t even make resolutions. With that in mind, this year’s resolutions I have are pretty simple. Read more. Write more. Play more games. Spend more time outside. Read more I read 34 books this year. 38 in 2014. 47 in 2013. That’s clearly going the wrong direction (and thank you Goodreads for helping me identify the skid). I’m too easily distracted by the phone and watching too much TV. That’s probably the main Read more…
Pay what you want for The Sci-fi Spectrum Bundle!
I’m very happy to say that The Lead Cloak is part of a 9-book bundle of books on Storybundle right now! Of the books in the bundle with me, one is a Philip K. Dick Award winner! Some explore space, some explore time—but not at the same time! 😉 If you want to fill up your To Be Read pile with a spectrum of sci-fi novels, this is a great way to do it (and you can pay what you want for these books!). StoryBundle is all about empowering YOU, the reader. Here’s how it works: Go to Storybundle.com and check out the books there. Read more…
The Iron Harvest: Coming in January 2016
I’m very happy to say that after two full years of work, I have a publication date for my newest book. The Iron Harvest, Book II of The Lattice Trilogy, will be available on January 26, 2016. You can pre-order your copy from Amazon, Apple, and Kobo. The book picks up almost immediately from where The Lead Cloak left off, so if you’ve been dying to know what happened to Byron Shaw, you will be in luck. (Also, if you haven’t read The Lead Cloak, you really should. And, in case you needed some extra incentive, it’s $0.99 from now until January Read more…
^