Riding to the Rescue!

So …

Whether it’s the group of riders sweeping around the corner and charging into battle to save the day, or a powerful figure entering a boardroom to save the main character from corporate malfeasance, I think most people love a good last-minute intervention by the cavalry riding to the rescue. It’s a staple of entertainment.

I’m not sure about the psychology of it but if I had to guess, I would posit that it has something to do with elation accompanying the swing in emotions. When all seems lost and the protagonist (and reader) are nearing despair, there is a sudden ray of hope, a chance to escape—or even a chance to dish out some well-deserved retribution to the ones tormenting the hero.

But like any other staple, cavalry rescue as a plot device can lose its taste with overuse.

I read a book not long ago (I won’t name it out of respect for the author, who passed unexpectedly) that featured multiple uses of the trope. Too many. It got to the point that when the protagonists were in dire straits, I was waiting to see who was going to save them this time. And several of the instances made little logical sense, for the “cavalry” in question to be placed just-so, in order to effect a rescue.

I know, as a writer, it is very tempting to use the cavalry to resolve an issue. It’s dramatic, and we all love pumping up the excitement in a scene. On the other hand, if it’s done badly, it will come off as deus ex machina; in other words, the author made some shit up because they wrote themselves into a corner and didn’t know how to get out of it.

Deus ex machina is a more general problem for authors to avoid (such as a character randomly knowing magic or how to fly a starship when they didn’t before because the plot needs them to solve a problem) but I am going to stick to the dramatic intervention of outsiders for the moment.

So with these thoughts on the table, here are a few ideas to keep in mind:

1) Like all literary devices, use it sparingly. Like I said above, it got to the point in that book where I was looking for a rescue of the characters every time they got in trouble, and I wasn’t surprised by the third time, nor any after that. Not only does this remove agency from your protagonist—you’re telling the reader the main characters don’t drive the plot but are only players affected by everyone else—but it also removes or lowers the stakes. If your reader thinks your characters aren’t in any danger (whether they are or aren’t), they won’t be invested in anything that happens.

2) Time it properly. As noted, the properly-placed arrival of the cavalry can raise the dramatic stakes and multiply the excitement for the reader. Because it’s a multiplier, I think timing it toward the book’s climax, or at least at the end of a long significant sequence, will amplify the intensity already present. This isn’t a hard and fast rule but if you’re going with point one above, make the most of limited use.

3) Make it logical. I can’t stress this one enough. Yes, it might be cool for the hero of your medieval fantasy to be backed into a corner by orcs with no hope of escape, only to have a flight of modern fighters sweep overhead and bomb the attackers into oblivion … except there’s no plausible reason for fighters to be there and no way for your character to communicate with them. It doesn’t have to be that extreme. Even in said scenario, if the wizards who were thought to be on the other end of the world show up and attack, how did they get there? How did they know the hero was in trouble? This is something you can avoid with a little careful planning in advance, by creating earlier in the story feasible reasons for the cavalry to arrive.

I’ll use two examples from film/TV to illustrate what I’m saying. Lord of the Rings and Jurassic Park spoilers incoming.

In the second LOTR movie, The Two Towers, when Theoden leads his people to Helm’s Deep, Gandalf tells Aragorn to look to the east on the morning of the fifth day as he rides out to look for help. As the fortress is besieged and slowly overwhelmed, just as the defenders make a final suicidal charge, Gandalf appears leading a host of loyal riders who had been turned from Theoden’s service. The cavalry arrives in a nick of time, on the fifth day, just as Gandalf said they would.

To me, this was a good example of the cavalry saving the day (quite literally). It was timed perfectly and set up by the previous proactive actions of the characters. I’ll give a little allowance for Gandalf, being the literal incarnation of a minor god, to calling his arrival at just the right time.

In contrast, in the first Jurassic Park movie, the main characters are cornered and about to be eaten by a pair of velociraptors … before a Tyrannasaurus Rex bursts in and chomps one of the raptors, also distracting the other so the humans can escape. It’s timed well, coming at both the movie’s climax and the end of an increasingly-tense sequence.

Except …

Every previous appearance of the Rex had been accompanied by impact tremors—vibrations caused by something massive (like dinosaur feet) hitting the ground. Even if the humans hadn’t noted such tremors in their fear, the raptors, with their enhanced senses, would have, and would have reacted to the presence of a predator fifty times their body weight (this doesn’t even cover the raptors seeing Rex before it attacked, considering the whole thrust of the movie is that dinosaurs are related to birds, who generally see very well). And with an island full of prey that it can hunt, the Rex has little plausible reason to be present then and there, save for the plot demanding it. The characters didn’t do anything to bring it there, so it was pure chance. As much as I like the movie, it’s an illogical moment.

These are just examples and I am certain you can think of others, but I hope these have illustrated the point a little. For readers, it is fine to demand a certain level of logic from your plot and characters. Even in fantasy. For writers … look, just make it make sense.

That’s enough babbling from me. Cheers!

Book News!

Hello, friends. Just a quick note to catch up on some things.

Biggest news is that my latest book, Cradle of the Old Weapons, will launch on 1 Apr (no fools). The Kindle version is up now and the paperback is in review, so barring any issues, it will be up shortly!

Also, the Kindle version of the first book in this two-book series (and my first novel), Pilgrimage to Skara, is on sale now until 4 Apr for the low, low price of $0.99. Pilgrimage is part of a sale for finalists in the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (more details on that sale here, so check it out.)

Cradle is a book I never planned to write but I had a handful of kind souls who hinted at wanting a sequel. I’d been tinkering with the concept for about two years and it came together at last. I think this will be the last tale set in this world but I never say never … and Keilie may make an appearance somewhere down the line.

Muse: That’s cryptic.

Intentionally so.

Muse: Okay, new book is … in the books. What’s next?

Well, that’s the real question.

I had a pretty ambitious publishing schedule this year. I originally planned to have four books out in 2023, with a possible fifth one in the first quarter of 2024 (all those words I logged in 2020-1 are finally starting to pay off).

Unfortunately, some life complications have slowed my schedule and everything is kind of up in the air right now. I’ve been spending some time out of town with ill members of my family and that’s going to continue off-and-on for the near future.

With that in mind, I am going to push off the first book of the new Holly Sisters trilogy to next year. I’d been hoping to have it out this fall but I just don’t think it’s going to be ready. I’m enjoying Sydney and Gerry’s journey into new lands and I am about 2/3 through the first draft … but I don’t want to force it, so it’s going to take a little longer.

I do still plan to have the next Bleakwater novella this fall, time permitting. I’m missing writing about Kayla, Mara, and Jack, and I have the plot sketched out. I will also have an all-ages fantasy out in a few months, under a pen name (more details coming on that). So it may still be a three-book year. AND, I am still looking at releasing the first book of The Book of Shadowreach early next year, but to be determined.

Anyway, friends, thanks for reading. You all have a wonderful, book-filled day. I’m gonna go listen to some Fleetwood Mac and try to figure out why these edits are not coming any easier.

Cheers!

CreateNet, Skynet’s Awkard Cousin, is Upon Us

So …

AI. Artificial Intelligence. Long a staple of science fiction, it’s also long been something of a holy grail for the science community. The depictions have run the gamut but I would say that for the most part, said depictions are rather ominous, and have been since the idea existed. Isaac Asimov writing in I, Robot tackled the morality of the artificial life with his Three Laws of Robotics. After that, it started to evolve (or devolve) into more sinister concepts such as H.A.L. in 2000: A Space Odyssey, or even more sinister ideas shown in The Terminator, or the sinister-est (my blog, I say it’s a word here) concept of humanity’s enemies in The Matrix. There’s a common element in almost every conceptualization of an AI that runs amok, and that’s there was always a pivot point in the story where people (read, scientists) should have left well enough alone, invoking Ian Malcom’s line, “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

With this in mind, I’m rolling into AI as related to writing novels.

Muse: Wait. Are you suggesting that AI writing novels and such is going to lead to the end of humanity?

You never know.

Okay, not really.

But to me, it is interesting watching this evolve. It’s not just for writing but spreading across more creative outlets—into procedurally-generated art, for example. Sites such as Midjourney can take a set of criteria and, using a bunch of images on the net, kluge together something … “original.” I would say that a lot of them were, at first, pretty crude, but the programs have made surprising strides in a short period of time. Some of the best ones I’ve seen look like honest-to-God original art. The algorithms are getting better, the refinement is improving.

Except …

The ingestors for these programs (the mechanisms used to obtain the base pieces that are modified and combined) have been pretty indiscriminate and sucked up a lot of copyrighted images. That’s an issue.

It’s come up on author forums and Discord a few times, with some authors looking at this art which may look pretty good and asking about the legality—or wisdom—of using it on their own projects, such as book covers. My stance, for myself and everyone else, has been, “stay the hell away from it,” for several reasons. For one, the legality/copyright of such art is very ill-defined and up in the air right now. Using it could land someone in copyright unpleasantness, leading to weeks or months trying to clean it up, and that’s all time and money taken away from doing something more productive. Some of it is good enough to show up on stock art sites and there was even a flap about a Christopher Paolini (Eragon series) book using an artificially-generated element. But not every author is going have Tor—or, rather, the heft of Tor’s legal department—backing them up. So exercise caution, friends.

On a moral level, using such art is also (highly likely) using someone’s copyrighted work without compensation. Maybe the art generators have the option to only use images marked open for any use under Creative Commons, but I imagine such a limitation would be so restrictive as to be useless. And if it did, would such art itself be copyrighted? It’s a tangle I think best avoided for now. Besides, as an author, do you want someone plagiarizing your work and reselling it under a different name? Do unto others.

Then we have AI writing programs, like ChatGPT, which, in theory, will eventually be able to carry on a conversation (say, on a tech support site) with someone that will be indistinguishable from having a human on the other end. I’ve seen some samples of the conversations and they are … not as bad as I hoped they would be. I’ve also seen some attempts by GPT-3 (kind of the progenitor of ChatGPT) to write fiction novels. I’d qualify the examples I’ve seen as more of summaries or plot outlines. They were coherent, in the sense that they had a fully-developed story arc that incorporated story tropes and cliches. Each example lacked good characterization, descriptive language, or anything I’d call emotional relatablity.

But that’s now. Where will it be in ten years, or even five?

Lest other creatives—say actors and musicians—be sitting over there laughing at creators in print media, the handwriting is on the wall for you too. Music has already been digitized and blended to the point that one can develop completely new instrumental tunes without picking up the first instrument. Just in the last few weeks, there have been several articles about “deep-fake voice apps,” that can render a person’s speech pattern to the point that it is indistinguishable to the casual ear. How much of a leap would it be for someone to record a song without a human in the loop? Just blend Beyonce and Rhainna’s voice patterns to get a new one, right? Deep-fake/photoshopped images have been a thing for a while but it’s moving into film and recordings now. They’re not at all perfect but again, the algorithms are getting better, and where will it be in five years? We’re going to reach a point where someone can be inserted seamlessly into a video where they never were before, and it’s going to be undetectable to the naked eye—and in time, perhaps even to digital inspection.

I’ll date myself by saying this, but Gen-Xers and older may remember a commercial tagline that went, “Is it live, or is it Memorex?” The idea was that the tape quality was so high that the listener wouldn’t be able to tell if it was live or a recording. Ironic, that we’ve actually reached the point that the listener/viewer may not be able to tell if the art was created by a human or a computer.

This technology is barreling ahead at breakneck speed and it makes me nervous. The implications are staggering. I have no doubt it’s going to be used for nefarious purposes, whether for scams, blackmail (“I’ve got this tape of you cheating on your spouse and they won’t be able to tell the difference.”), government control, or a half a dozen other bad things. That’s a hell of a rabbit hole to go down so for now, I am just going to stick to the evolution of CreateNet.

Creative, artistic endeavors—be it in film, music, art, writing, or what have you—have, through human history, depended on two things: the passion and flare of their creators, and the patronage of their supporters. The first is under threat. While the bulk of AI-generated art have seen has been relatively soulless without a human in the loop, that’s just now. It’s come leaps in just a few years, and will continue to do so. Unless you think it is inherently impossible for algorithms to mimic human expression and creativity, we’re looking at a possible future where creative outlets will be, as a matter of course, farmed out to the computers.

Writers have been there before. Long before the terms Pulp Fiction and Grindhouse were associated with Quentin Tarentino, they were terms that applied to cheap, rapidly-produced books and movies, designed to get on the market quickly, and just as quickly be replaced by the next one. Both were criticized for lack of literary or artistic merit, and maybe with just cause. Writers and crew on these projects often labored for pennies, where the idea was just maxing out volume, not quality. Almost feels like we’re back in that mode.

Except this time, the quality might be better. In time, it might be superior.

Muse: I bet that hurt to say.

It did.

The other half of this is the patronage aspect and that, dear reader, is where you come in. While there is no way to know if your favorite authors are generating their work without automated help, I advise you to get out there and support your favorites. Buy their books. Go meet them at live events, shake their hand, and talk to them about their books. It doesn’t have to be financial; post about the ones you like and talk them up. Support them in their endeavors outside the mainstream of entertainment (self-publishing, indy music scene, etc) or make them too invaluable to be replaced.

Don’t kid yourself. The mega-corporations that run everything else, as well entertainment media, would love to cut the creatives out of the loop, assign everything to algorithms, and pocket the net difference. CreateNet is here and I don’t see it going away. In the long run, only the consumer applying their dollar will avoid it swamping the creators.

I know it’s incredibly easy to get books, art, films, media, et al, through other means: used, or even … ahem, sailing the high seas. Times are tight, and everyone’s crunched. But if your favorite artists aren’t supported, they may cease to exist and if that happens, you’ll have one option left: the soulless, bland entertainment of the machine.

So find a way to support your human artists.

Down with CreateNet.

Muse: Don’t worry. I’ll be here with you, whispering ideas and criticisms in your ear, until the very end.

I know … thanks.

Excelsior! Part 3

(This is my third year of posting a summary of my writing and word counts, so part three.)

So …

Another year under the belt. In terms of word production, 2022 was my worst year since 2019. I ended up penning around 280K new words this year, so lemme break it down:

Tales of Bleakwater

This year, I published two novellas in my new series: No Rest For Wicked Thieves (March) and The Burnt Ends of Bad Ideas (October). These have been fun stories to tell and I really like the primary characters Kayla and Mara. Their sister dynamic is a little different than Sydney and Marla’s and the reception has generally been pretty good. This is an open-ended series and while I have an end to the story in mind, I want to keep telling stories–one or two a year–for a while. It’s a great filler around my other projects. I also published the second short story (available for free at Bookfunnel!) in the series, which details what happened to thief and lady-killer Jack Mercury during the events of Burnt Ends.

I started tinkering around the edges of the third book (The Gray Beast Strikes at Night), which I look to put out toward the end of 2023. All the writing for this series consumed about 55K words.

Way of the Pathfinder

Cradle of the Old Weapons, the long-awaited–

Muse: Long-awaited by whom? You got a mouse in your pocket?

Shaddup. The long-awaited sequel to Pilgrimage to Skara, Cradle will be out (I hope) in February. Skara was my first published novel and has been edited/revised a few times. Even so, placing the two books side-by-side, I think it is inescapable that Cradle is the better-written book–better characterization, better pace. It’s nice to feel like I’ve made progress as an author over the last six years, learned something, and actually improved my craft. I sunk about 60K words into Cradle and it should be going to my proofreader after the holidays.

Holly Sisters: The Coming Storm

I’ve been working on the first book of the second trilogy for Sydney and crew, following the events of Sylvan Valley Aflame. In this one, Sydney and her companion end up far to the west of Woodhollow in the course of their wandering the world and as usual, get into trouble. This one introduces races and settings with an Arabic-inspired mythology to the Woodhollow-verse. I’m hoping to have the first book out in the second half of 2023. I added about 25K words to that first draft effort, which brings it to around 60K total.

Untitled All-Ages Fantasy

So, this was something I started and plan to get out this year. I’ve been doing a lot of live sales events and at almost every one, I have someone ask me if I have anything suitable for mid-grade or young adult readers. I don’t, really, since all of my fiction is written at an adult level. But I want to put something on the table that is suitable for younger readers, even if I don’t push it elsewhere. It’ll be under a different pen name, just to avoid target audience confusion. I got about 30K into this one, with plans to top out around 80K and with the plot where it is, I seem to be on pace.

Adult Writing

I sank around 90K words into my erotica writing, which was a major step down from previous years. I only published four stories in the last twelve months, though I have multiple stories languishing on the hard drive in various states of repair–ie, which aren’t good enough to share. Still committed to working this genre, along with my romance, but my fantasy publishing goals are punishing, so–given the vagaries of life–something will probably give and it will probably be this.

Other

I had a couple of other things (minor prompts with friends, short stories that may become something larger) that consumed the last 20K or so.

That’s it. I have another post in mind for the blog (that’s not about me) but I’ll save it for this week, and kick off the new year on the blog with a bang. In the meantime, everyone have a great day!

Cheers!

Book Day! And onto the future!

So …

New book day! My second book in the Tales of Bleakwater, series, The Burnt Ends of Bad Ideas, is now live and in the wild. This volume focuses on Kayla’s sister Mara as she struggles to find her purpose after the events of No Rest for Wicked Thieves. Links on the book page.

With release, I’ve finished all the administrivia associated with a new book and that means I can sit back and have a smoke and a cognac, and do nothing, right? Well, no. Here’s what’s coming up:

• I have a short story that takes place after Burnt Ends which should be posted at the end of the month for free on Bookfunnel. If you want to know what happened to Jack Mercury, this one will tell you!

• The long-awaited (by a handful of people) sequel to Pilgrimage to Skara is now with my beta readers. Cradle of the Old Weapons picks up the events in Collum ten years after Wendt and Keilie’s trek and struggle to overthrow the old despot. Circumstances will bring them back together again and on another desperate journey. Writing this one, and comparing it to Skara, made me realize how far I’ve come as a writer. Expected release: around the end of 2022

• I’m working on the first draft of the newest Sydney book, chronicling her journeys. It should be out next summer.

• The next Bleakwater book, The Gray Beast Strikes at Night. While Mara muddles about the city, Kayla heads into the wilderness to decipher her role as the high priestess to the wolf God Chalion–and faces a threat to man and wolf alike. It’ll be out sometime next year.

Anyway, lots of moving pieces but lots of stuff coming soon. Looks to be an exciting year!

Cheers!

A Writer Looks at Fifty

(With apologies to Jimmy Buffet for paraphrasing the title of one of his hit songs.)

So …

Birthday today. Fifty years. Half a century on this ball of mud, and I kicked around a good part of in my time as a military brat and military member. In those decades and travels, I’ve learned a few things here and there.

Muse: Anything that helps you write better?

I’d like to think so.

I posted ten years ago (on my fortieth birthday) on this very same blog about something I had never admitted to anyone up to that point: that after my first year in college, I came very close to dropping out, going to art school to learn to draw comics, and trying to break into that industry. I ultimately didn’t, of course, and that generated a lot of internal disappointment, because I did the “safe” and “responsible” thing, rather than take a chance on something that—at the time—I really, really wanted to do.

In reality, it probably worked out for the best. I’ve tried several times over the years to hone my skills as an artist, most recently (and seriously) about five years ago. I never quite got the hang of it. I can draw a little but I don’t feel the passion for it I thought I would. That, in turn, hampered my ability to sink the necessary time into getting better. But I’ve maintained my passion for writing.

I love writing and have most of my life. I really started making a legitimate effort about fifteen years ago, when my wife Lisa (God bless her) told me that if I was serious, I really needed to fish or cut bait—to poo or get off the pot—since time waits for no one.

How right she was.

I wrote short stories for many years before starting novels. Lisa was after me for years to move to books and again, she was correct right from the beginning. I now have five books out—

Muse: You do?

Yeah. I know how few people realize that. It will get more amusing by the end of the calendar year, when I should have two more out, and plan to heave either nine or ten total published by the end of 2023, and by then how few people will know that. I also know not many folks care.

Muse: Hey, I didn’t mean—

I know you didn’t. Back to my point. I do love writing and telling stories. It’s something that really sings to me. I am in a position where I have time to sink into it and I honestly believe that even if I never sell another book, I’ll keep doing it, because it’s fulfilling.

That’s not to say I don’t go through dark periods where I wonder if it’s worth it. Of course I do. I think every creative person does, and I had a pretty good bout of it lately. It’s almost painful to see someone who loves and rates highly every book they read … and then say, “Meh,” to one of mine. (In fairness, I have had one or two readers who grade everyone tough and still gave me favorable marks, so these things balance out.) I go through it sometimes when I read a self-published book, feel very unimpressed, and learn it’s sold thousands of copies when mine don’t. That leads to questioning my writing skill, talent, ability to tell a story, etc. The feelings of rejection, obscurity, and futility (perceived or real) loom large, threatening to overshadow anything I achieve.

Once I get past the self-pity (which is really all it is), I genuinely have to take a step back. My life, overall, is pretty good. People are dealing with a lot of crap these days and I … really don’t have much of that. I have a loving spouse who supports me, good family, my health, and financial stability. I live remotely and if I stay off news sites, even the worst things in the world don’t affect my mood as much. I had Covid last year and kicked its ass. Hell, in a clan full of bald men, I should be happy that at fifty I still have a full head of thick hair. About the only part of my life with day-to-day angst and stress is my writing career.

That’s not just tolerable. I’m coming around to the point that it’s pretty enviable.

Sure, in the moment, it sucks. While selling so many tomes that I could live off my writing would be stellar, I really just want folks to experience the tales I have in my head, and it’s tough to realize that not only do some readers not want to, that modifier of “some” may actually be “most.” As a writer, sometimes it’s hard to get your head around the idea that many readers just don’t like your stuff.

But the longer I think about it, the more okay I am with that. The more I just smile and move on. In the greater scheme of things, being an unknown author with a tiny fanbase isn’t the worst thing in the world.

And there are good things. I am on my way out to meet with a local library to donate a set of The Holly Sisters for their shelves and to discuss an author signing event. I met a local fan this last weekend who loved everything I’ve written. There are positives and that’s what I want o focus on.

Does that mean I won’t still have down moments? No. Will it bother me as much? I don’t think it will. My goal going forward is to never complain about my writing again, in public or private. Instead, I just want to hit the high points and enjoy the positives.

I might have thirty years of good life left. At this pace, I can still push out another thirty novels before the end. Will I? Who knows. The world might descend into Mad Max-style anarchy before then. But do I have stories to tell? Yes, so I will.

If anyone listens … well, that will just be a bonus.

Cheers to you all and thanks for reading!

Just a Brief Catch-Up

Hey, all. Sorry I have not been very active lately. It has been a busy, busy spring. I have a few ideas for posts here, that I will try to get to in coming days.

But a few things before I get to that.

First, the newest version of Pilgrimage to Skara is up and posted now, with a fresh edit and a new cover! It’s also available in paperback for the first time. Links and the new cover on the book page.

I have been writing. First drafts of the next book in the Bleakwater series, The Burnt Ends of Bad Ideas, and the sequel to Skara, titled Cradle of the Old Weapons, are complete and should be out later this year–the first around Sep-Oct and the second Nov-Dec. The next book in the Woodhollow-verse, featuring Sydney’s adventures in the wider world, is planned for next spring and has a tentative title of, The Emerald Gates.

I’ve also updated my master book list page (clicking directly on Books! in the top menu bar or here) with some upcoming plans, which should keep me busy writing for the next few years.

Anyway, brief entry to let everyone know I am still out here. Cheers!

So, Book News!

All right, to start with, I have a set date for my first novella in my new series, Tales of Bleakwater . The opening book, No Rest for Wicked Thieves (Amazon link) features Kayla Tanglebrush, a world-weary burglar caught between her past and her present. First book is available for e-book pre-order, with the paperback available in a few weeks.

Tales is planned as on ongoing series of novellas and I am optimistically planning to release two a year. The first draft of book two, The Burnt Ends of Bad Ideas, is almost done and it should be out later this year, and I have the next two plotted for 2023.

But wait! In the meantime, there is a free short story available on Bookfunnel, Between a Box and a Hard Place (link), to introduce the reader to Kayla’s world. No sign-up required! I intend to sprinkle more short works in between the novellas as we go.

In other news:

• I am almost done with the first draft of the follow-up to my first novel, Pilgrimage to Skara, which will be titled Pilgrimage to Tyman. A quick blurb:

Ten years after the events of Skara, Keilie Kettiburg–now the Ajudicar of Collum–is confronted with a powerful new enemy … one that can completely negate her power. She turns to the only man she trusts to help her. Older, tired, and dying of sickness, Pell Wendt agrees to accompany Keilie yet again, in defense of the lives of all the people in Collum.

I am looking at later this year for this one. Also, Skara will be getting a new cover this year, along with a fresh edit and will be available in paperback.

• I started a new series starring Sydney, the faery protagonist of The Holly Sisters. Planned as a duology, it follows Sydney after she leaves Sylvan Valley and heads into the wider world after the events of Sylvan Valley Aflame. This will be followed up by several more books following other characters who survived the first series, before I bring them all back together. The first book should be out next year.

• I am still working on my series tentatively called The Sentinel. I began revising the second book and broke ground on the first draft of the third. This is planned as a four-book series. I might get the first book out next year, depending.

So … ambitious, maybe, but I have a lot to keep me busy. In any event, I hope you all are well and keep on reading.

Cheers!

Excelsior! Part 2

(Part 1 was my last post of last year.)

So …

It’s been a wild year, writing-wise and otherwise. Writing was tough, and touch-and-go at times. I ran into some stress late in the year when things went wrong, and for the first time in five years, I did not complete my NaNoWriMo project (to write 50K words in November).

I still felt like I had solid production, topping out around 481K words, though I did not have solid consistency. I bounced all over the place, off a bunch of different targets. I have a slew of books unfinished or half-finished. So now for a summary. First let’s start with the good stuff.

The Holly Sisters

– I finished the trilogy in March with Sylvan Valley Aflame, after adding a few thousand words early this year. It didn’t get a lot of reads but those who liked the first book seemed to enjoy the rest of it too.

– And on that note, good news, I am 35K words into the first book of a new Sydney series … well, maybe a series. It will either be one chunky book or a duology of two shorter books. TBD. Either way, I am hoping to have it out in the second half of 2022.

The Sentinel

This is a big project for me, and is kind of taking some time. I might have the first book out in 2023, depending on how much work I get done this year. It’s very grim compared to my other work. Still planning on about four books to finish it.

– I added 20K words to the first book, and finished the first draft of the second book with another 60K words, which is now around 100K.

Tales of Bleakwater

This was something new I started, for when other inspiration is not working. The stories concern a cynical middle-aged cat burglar named Kayla, living in the dangerous city of Bleakwater. It’s going to be an open-ended series of novellas, though I’ll be releasing some material for the saga for free. I wrote and revised the first one, though an early reader has suggested some good tweaks I need to make. I should have the first one, No Rest for Wicked Thieves (about 37K words) out in the first quarter of 2022, and aiming for having another out at the end of the year.

Sequel to Pilgrimage to Skara

– I swore I would do a sequel to this story, even though it wasn’t received well. Hey, maybe I can redeem the character arcs. Anyway, for the handful of people who did enjoy it and asked for a sequel, I am still committed to doing it. I started and stalled, unsure which way I want to go at this point, but I am 45K words into it. I want to finish this year.

Romance

– I added about 30K words in edits to my interconnected romance series. I really, really want to start getting these things in print.

– I started the fifth one and got 40K into it (my NaNoWriMo project) before I fell apart.

Adult Writing

– Almost 175K words nine different stories. It is amazing how much reading and attention this gets. Since the romances are steamy too (though less so), I hope this will translate some readership when they are published. No, I will not reveal my pen name.

Other

I also cracked out a bunch of smaller pieces, some writing challenges I do with friends, and such. Those totaled about 33K over the year.

Muse: You realize those numbers don’t add up to 481K, right?

Rounding errors, I promise.

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Okay, so that’s a quick-n-dirty accounting. We’ll have to see what 2022 holds.

Hope everyone is doing well and kicks off their new year in a good way. Cheers!

The Hidden Lessons of Moving Product

So …

I spent some time this year (local pandemic restrictions permitting) at a handful of live events (craft fairs, holiday markets, etc), where I had a chance to do a little book selling. I’d not done it very much before; I mean, getting out and trying to sell your products live, not from behind the screen of the internet, can be daunting. But I have to say this: taken collectively, it has been an awesome experience. Not only have I enjoyed it but I have learned a ton in the process.

Oh, there are the standard lessons they teach you about doing any type of live-selling, at anything from a yard sale to a curated art show. You know the lessons I’m talking about: having change to make when people pay cash, figuring out the best way to display your goods, and the usual rigamarole. But I did trip on a few things I’ve learned that maybe wouldn’t be in everyone’s first thoughts. So I thought I would share them here.

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#1) Keep a smile on your face.

I know that sounds terribly obvious but given how I see other people running their booths, I’m not sure it is. I saw a lot of grumpy vendors out there, and I saw how people reacted to them. In contrast, I was pleasant, welcoming, and open to conversation, even if it had nothing to do with my books. I had a standard routine and verbiage to talk about my stories, which I would vary a little with each shopper, to make it sound a little less rehearsed. I avoided those Valley-of-Death subjects like politics and religion and kept the banter upbeat.

Did this test my patience? Yes, a few times, like when I ended up in a five-minute conversation with someone who had no interest in books and just wanted to talk my ear off about their husband’s dog or something (I kind of tuned out part of it). I also had the mispleasure of someone snapping at me that they didn’t read anything with witchcraft in it, to which all I could do was smile and nod. But on the other hand, I attribute several of my sales to engaging a shopper, asking them about their morning, talking about the weather, if they had seen anything good at other booths at the show, the shirt I was wearing (which was chosen on purpose as a conversation starter), or anything else that crossed my mind. Whatever I had to do to draw them in. If they were wearing a veteran’s hat, I would thank them for their service and mention I was also in the service. If they had a tee shirt bearing the logo of a band, I would ask about that. I was also honest; when one woman asked if Rumble in Woodhollow would be suitable for her twelve-year old who liked fantasy, I said I didn’t think so, because it has some adult language and violence, and recommended some mid-grade books. Other shoppers took note of that and commented on me being upfront. Trust-building is a thing.

By the end of each day, was I tired of being chipper and was I ready to punch my smile off my own face? Yes but that’s hardly the point. I think the technique of being upbeat and cheery in sales making the buyer more receptive is a long-established one. That’s all this is. Keep smiling.

#2) You don’t have too many books.

I don’t mean titles but copies.

Going into one of the shopping fests in November, I had several copies of each book in the The Holly Sisters—maybe twenty books altogether. I thought for sure that given that this two-day bazaar was a holiday market in a small town of under ten thousand people that it would be enough.

It wasn’t. I sold out the first book of the trilogy and was reduced to one copy of the third. To be honest, I was stunned.

I think you have to maintain a sense of proportion about these things. You don’t want to have thousands of copies on hand (and have the money tied up in them) if you are not able to move any. But a couple dozen overall? Or even a hundred? I’m thinking that is the minimum you want, even at a small venue. You have no idea if you are going to get hot on a given day and get just the right blend of shoppers … and you cannot sell books you don’t have. Your rate of return per book of selling physical copies live is likely going to be better than anywhere else. If you’re getting books from Amazon (as most of us are, in some capacity), it is, as of this writing, taking fourteen to seventeen days from time of ordering to get author copies. Plan and stock accordingly.

#3) New tech is a thing.

I get it; having something like a Square for credit card processing has become a (moderately) standard staple of selling at these types of venues. It makes sense. But for the first time, at the above-mentioned bazaar, I had someone try to pay with Venmo, a cash-transmitting phone app that I really had no knowledge of.

It’s hard to stay on the cutting edge of technology and I admit, I lag behind in these things. But like when I said you can’t sell the books you don’t have, you also can’t sell the books if you can’t take payment. In the case above, the person was able to make an alternate form of payment but if they hadn’t? I would have been shit out of luck.

So now? I am looking into Venmo and/or CashApp and seeing if I can get myself set up on them. It may not come up often but when it does, I want to be ready.

#4) A partner is invaluable.

At most of these venues, I set up with a friend and local author, Paula Winskye. She writes mysteries and dabbles in some other genres. Having a partner does several things for us. For one, it gives us an interesting spread of genre fiction on the table. When we ask a potential shopper about their reading preferences and they say, “A little bit of everything,” (a common answer), we can say, “Well good, because we have a little bit of everything.”

Secondly, having someone you trust who can watch the booth while you step away for a moment is great for peace of mind. You don’t spend the trip to the restroom wondering if someone is swiping something from the table. You can cover each other with a five or a few ones when you’re short, secure in the knowledge you will be able to settle up.

Third, and maybe most importantly, you can talk up each other’s books and be a great sales advocate for your partner, and them for you. Granted, it helps if you have some knowledge of their books, but since Paula and I test read and proofread for each other—and because we talk writing when do these things—we’re familiar with the other’s works. That means when some wisenheimer looks at me and says, “Which one of hers is your favorite?” my response is immediate and confident. Mutually boosting each other falls into that territory of “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”

Of course, it helps if you get along with the other person. Fortunately, we do.

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Okay, so that was a quick summary. Lessons learned, and all that. If anyone has lessons to share, I’d love to read them.

Cheers!

Now, back to work. I’ve had a large number of buyers ask when Sydney is going to return, and I need to see to it that she does. As of now, I am about halfway through the first book in her new series.