The Legacy of Technology
As I continue to work on Book II of The Lattice Trilogy, I am writing more and more about the legacy of old technology. Writing about “old” technology in 2081 means writing a lot about current times (and the next few decades). But there are so many examples of legacy technology today. We are surrounded by it. We often think of technology as this march of progress, but a better image would be of geologic strata. New technology is layered over older technology, but the old technology doesn’t go away. It’s just not as visible. It’s a much more accurate Read more…
To Title or Not to Title
It’s hard to title a book or a movie. I’ve written hundreds of thousands of words, but it’s usually those first couple of words that are the hardest. Truth be told, I’m still not 100% happy with The Lead Cloak‘s title. It has just the slightest tinge of fantasy, when it’s really a pretty straight sci-fi adventure. One of the most common things people try with titles is to adapt a famous quote or line from the Bible or Shakespeare. Sometimes this can be devastatingly effective. Other times, pointless or pretentious. After seeing numerous titles adapted from Hamlet’s famous soliloquy, Read more…
After all that …
Way back in 2011, I was putting the finishing touches on The Marinara Murders and didn’t have a new project to work on. I had an idea for the next Beautyman mystery, but my head was full of a science fiction novel. I’ve never written science fiction, but I couldn’t get it out of my system. So I took a leap and started writing. It ended up going really really well. The book gathered dust during my election campaign that year, and then I picked it up again. Hannah’s arrival the next year actually helped me pick up the pace, Read more…
Every sale still amazes me …
The first day of every month is a hard one for an independent author. All your sales are wiped clean. However well you did the month before, all those sales disappear, and the counter resets to zero. This is what the sales report for Kindle looks like when you haven’t sold any books. No matter how good previous month sales were, this is the bar you see before you sell anything this month. Ugh. Back in 2010 and early 2011, there were some months when this bar wouldn’t go away until the end of the month. Now it usually goes away pretty Read more…
Sneak Peek
Things are moving along with my sci-fi adventure novel! I’m thinking October, but the hard and fast date is not fixed yet. There’s still a lot to be done, which is why I’m not sure of the date. So until then I want to share a small slice of the cover art from Tacoma artist Chandler O’Leary. It’s just a small hint of what is to come. So very excited to share the rest soon!
Me … in watercolor
The awesome Tacoma artist Chandler O’Leary painted a watercolor portrait of me in her sketchbook last month. I’ve been meaning to post it here, but if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you’ll see it there too. Chandler, among other projects, has a cool new site called “Drawn the Road Again” that is a watercolor/sketchbook travelogue. The whole site is illustrated and painted and it looks fantastic. (Side x Side helped her out with building it, hence the awesome portrait as a thank you). You can also expect to see Chandler’s artistic sense on the cover for my science Read more…
Quick to Market Isn't Always a Good Thing
I’ve always liked Longfellow’s poem “A Psalm of Life,” which I first read in high school. Here’s the last stanza: Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait. When I first read it, the last word felt wrong to me. In a poem that is all about how time is fleeting and how we must be a hero in the strife, it seemed weird to end the poem with an admonishment to learn to wait. Since then, I think I’ve come around to better understanding the Read more…
The Three Book Multipack
If you haven’t read one of my mysteries, have I got a deal for you. Here’s all three books in the Beautyman series put together as a single Kindle edition. It’s $6.99, which is a savings of four bucks if you bought them all individually. That’s The Saints Go Dying, The Marinara Murders, and The Con Before Christmas, back to back to back. Three books to read. No extra downloads. Save some money. Such a deal! On Kindle, Nook , and Kobo.
The Little Book of Likes, now available!
I’m happy to say that The Little Book of Likes is now available on all major book sites: Kindle Paperback Nook Kobo The Little Book of Likes is dedicated to helping small (and very small) nonprofits build an audience of readers–and potential donors and volunteers–on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. This short guide leads Executive Directors and nonprofit marketing managers through the ins and outs of a simple social media strategy that is effective and sustainable. With real-world practical advice, it recognizes that nonprofit managers usually have better things to be doing than updating Facebook. Like The Little Read more…
Ask An Author: Are Audiobooks Worth It?
For the last four months, I’ve had my non-profit fundraising guide for sale as an audiobook on Audible and iTunes. The decision to put it there was a bit of an experiment, and I’m happy to report that it’s gone quite well. Sales Report After four months of sales, I’ve paid for the upfront production costs of the book, which is–quite honestly–much faster than I expected. It’s been a high percentage of sales too. Since I do love making charts and graphs, here’s the last four months of sales of the book, by format. As you can see, the paperback Read more…
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