Well, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? Let’s sit down with a
cup of tea and catch up for a little bit. Or coffee. Or hell, maybe wine.
This won’t be a long, drawn out thing where I apologize and
make a bunch of promises about posting more often and all that stuff. That’s my
intent, but that’s not exactly the kind of riveting content you’re likely
looking for in a blog post. I will take a little time, though.
I don’t particularly like leaving long gaps in posting, but
I was working on a pretty tight deadline. Stupid me, I decided I’d promise a
publisher three books in a very short
timeframe. I did manage it, and I think it’s going to turn out as something
very worthwhile. That deadline fell in the middle of a convention I was headed
off to, so that happened. And then we came back and one of our dogs died the
next day.
Suffice it to say I was a little bit distracted.
This is basically just a little spit of a post to explain
what’s been going on, and to reassure you that I’m not dead and I haven’t
forgotten anything or stopped writing. Nothing like that, I promise. Just a bit
of a clusterfuck, for lack of a better word.
So I’ll talk to y’all later. I’m going to jump back in and
get my knuckles popping and moving. Writing writing writing.
Jesus H. Christ, it’s been a crazy couple months. I’m sorry
I kind of vanished like that, but life has been in pretty massive turmoil.
However, I have been working, so there’s that. I have good news on that front…
but first, the less than good news that’s kept me a bit distracted.
There’s a couple things that sort of conspired to make this
mess. The biggest one has been the dogs with cancer. I talked about this in my
last newsletter (Which was admittedly forever and a half ago), but we’ve had
two dogs with tumors in the past couple months. One of them was a benign little
mammary tumor, so that was just a surgery and she was good. The other one was a
grade 3 histiocytoma… not quite as easy. Poor little guy went through a month
of radiation, and he’s getting chemo every 10 days until they’re sure that he’s
good to go. As you can imagine, that held quite a bit of my attention. For a
while. But we’re settling into a routine around here again.
So, on to the good news. I’ve definitely not forgotten about
Evenstad Media Presents. This cancer adventure (Let’s call it that.) put the
brakes on a bit, but I officially can give you some actual information on this.
Are you ready? The Tunnels, Evenstad Media Presents #4, is written. It’s edited
and it’s formatted and all that happy whatnot. I’ve got the art request form in
with my cover artist, so once that’s done, I’ll be able to get it up on the ‘Zon,
get the print book put together, and it will (finally) be in your hot little
hands.
I think The Tunnels is the best book in the series since The
Park. I know I should love all my books equally, but… this one. Without giving
too much away, this book sees a lot of long-running plot threads come to a
head, and it sets us all up for a strong run to the final book (#7). Things
start to get really shaken up in this book, and they only get more and more
shaken until the series is over, which just excites the crap out of me.
Beyond that, I’ve started working off of a yearly schedule.
I mean, sure, it starts in July instead of January, but it lasts a year. Not
important. What is important is what’s on it. By next June, I should have Evenstad
#5 and #6 done and either out or ready to ship out very shortly, and then it
goes on to the final installment. I also have Rings of Injustice, the third
book in my big, sweeping sci-fi series (That I still haven’t published. Don’t
worry, that’s coming soon, too.) on the schedule, as well as five books for The
Other Me. I figured I can do about 9-10 books each year as long as I stick to
my schedule.
Anything else? Umm… well, I’ll be at some conventions and
such in the area with the Northwest Authors Co-Op. I believe our next event is
at the end of September, for V-Con in Vancouver, BC. And I’ll be presenting a
workshop at the Idaho Writers League conference in Couer d’Alene and at the
Moses Lake Public Library Comic-Con in Moses Lake… at the library. Go figure.
If you’ll be at or around any of those events, go ahead and swing on over and
say hi!
I believe that’s it. I’ll make sure to keep y’all much more
updated than I did the past couple months… unless something completely insane
happens again. Then I may disappear for a bit. But barring the unforeseen? I’ll
see you on the bestseller lists (Maybe… hopefuly?).
The ground is covered in a sheet of snow, I have four
half-drunk bottles of wine in my kitchen, and I keep scribbling out 2015 and
correcting it to 2016. Seems like an average New Year to me. Although I’m
really hoping not. I’m hoping for a kick-ass New Year this time around, and it
appears to not be sucking totally right now (Knock on wood.).
Now, I’m going to give a hat tip to the elephant in the room
before I continue on with things that are a little more fun. The third Evenstad
Media book is coming, I promise.
There was a bit of a snafu on the production side of things, so it’s going to
be a bit delayed. Good news for anyone who needs to catch up, but bad news for
anyone who’s been waiting for this one to release, so I do apologize. At the very
latest, it’ll be out by mid-February, but a lot sooner if I get my way.
So, what about the year going forward? Well, Evenstad four
is also on the docket, though I’m keeping it pretty well under my hat right
now. Details will come when we get closer to the actual release date for that
one (Some time this summer, unless gremlins gum up the works on this one, too.
Here’s hoping not.). And, with The King Jester Trilogy totally finished at long
last, I’ll be able to give some more focus to other ideas. Old ideas. Pretty
ideas.
If you’ve been here for a while with me, you might remember the odd
mention of Rings of Treachery here and there over the years. Well, it still
exists, but I’ve vowed that I’m going to put it out this year, come hell or
high water. In the interest of full disclosure, it’s currently out on
submission with a publisher, so I should hear back within a few months…
hopefully. If that works out, then I might have to bend a little on my
schedule. Let’s say ‘published or contracted’ this year instead, yeah?
After that, depending on the phases of the moons and what
the chicken intestines tell me (Or, you know, whatever I feel like), I could
pick up a number of other projects. I have an old book about puppets that’s
been weighing on my mind lately (Though that may just be because the puppet
army is taking over Radcon this year…). Or I might turn to something a little
less well-formed and see where that leads me, in the end. It’s really open.
That’s what happens when a series closes off. Something that’s sort of filled
your attention for months on end is finally gone, and you begin to see past it
to what you can do next. Completely the opposite of reading a series. Then you
just sort of feel lost and hungry for more books that don’t exist.
Or maybe that’s just me.
I’ll also be picking up on writing short stories again so I
can spread tiny versions of my writing far and wide. Kind of like a plague, but
slightly less deadly. Very slightly.
And when it comes to things in a non-writing sense, I’ve
made some decisions about the year ahead as well. The main one is to have less
anger and negativity. I tend to get rather upset with people, but it does me no
good. So I’m working on it. Not to say I’ll turn all peaceful—anger is still an
emotion and it’s still useful—but I’ll be more careful with how it comes out,
and evaluate it more. See if it’s doing anything, or if it’s just causing me
pain.
I’m also going to return to some of my other passions (This is where the part when the sharing begins. First and last warning.). I consider
2015 the year where I sort of got lost. There was really a lot of turmoil going
on in my psyche at that point. I’d put back on all the weight I’d lost and shot
back over 300 pounds. I wasn’t reading. I was even angrier than usual. I’d just
moved away from most of my friends and family (It was really a good decision,
but still. It’s hard no matter what.). I was readjusting, and things just
started to drop off. I wasn’t
reading anymore. I wasn’t singing anymore. I hadn’t played trombone in months
and months. And eventually, that started to encroach on my writing. I hated
doing it.
Eventually, I figured that I hated doing the actual writing
work because I wasn’t doing anything else for myself. I used to say ‘If I’m not
singing, then I know that something’s wrong.’ Except I ignored that advice and
kept digging through the writing. The more I did it without anything else going
on, the more I just hated doing it. And when I hated it, I hated myself a little more. The writing didn't suffer, just me.
Well, suffice it to say that’s over and done with, now. I’m
not a New Year’s resolution kind of person, but I made some this year. Read
more. Sing more. Make time for things that I’m passionate about. I still
haven’t gotten around to belly dancing with any regularity again (Working on
it.) and my trombone has only been out of the case once or twice in the past
few weeks (And one of those times was to clean and oil it, so…), but it’s going
to come. I’m determined not to fall into the Swamp of Sadness again this year.
Stupid horse…
So that’s my uncomfortable level of sharing. How about you?
Are you taking 2016 as a chance to get shit back on track, or are you just
going to continue to rock the socks off life? Let me know.
Gee, thanks for the helpful title. Aren't you an author? Shouldn't you be better at this?
Most likely, but I don't like your attitude, voice in my head.
I've been meaning to get on this here blog of mine for a while and post wonderful things... but then, just like up above, the voices in my head got in the way, which means lots and lots of ideas in various stages of completion. Including some ideas for my blog (and The Other Me's blog).
So, a few weeks ago, I finished up the sequel to The Park. I'm aiming to have a release in that series every six months, so the next would be in July. Keep your eyes peeled for that little number: Evenstad Media Presents: The Mall.
I've also got some things potentially in the works for The King Jester Trilogy. The third book, A Fool's War, will come out later this year, which is always exciting.
I've also been working on a big new project for The Other Me, which I'm starting for Camp NaNoWriMo next month. It seems to be the year of me making really long series, because that one is set up to run indefinitely. Which was the point, I suppose. Doesn't mean I'm not slightly terrified of it. Only very slightly though.
Also on The Other Me front, I'm nearing publication for an urban fantasy novella through Storm Moon Press, but you'll have to bebop over to the appropriate blog for info on that.
I'm also, as always is the case, working on short stories for various things. I unfortunately couldn't pull anything together for Queers Destroy Sci-Fi, but I recommend picking up that issue of Lightspeed when it comes out. It's bound to be awesome. But I do plan on trying to get some things pulled together for other projects, so keep your eyes peeled for those awesome little tidbits.
I'm also thinking of delving into non-fiction, but I want to keep that mostly under wraps for the time being... just in case I change my mind about writing the book...
As for the blogs, I'm going to do my best to post regular content on here and on the other blog, like I did before. Not revealing what that is, either, but I think it'll be exciting.
But enough about me. What are your updates for me? Always happy to hear from y'all, when I get the chance.
I answer everything but the last question. Everyone knows you just go to the second star on the right and then straight on 'til morning.
I hope you had a glorious weekend, everyone. I had company
and so couldn’t get on too often. Sorry about that. But what matters is that
I'm here now, and I've got an update on what I've been doing lately. I want to
let you, my loyal fans and followers, get the first taste of what's been
happening in the Vossverse… or UniVoss… I haven't decided on a name yet.
A lot of my time has been taken up prepping to launch The
Jester Prince next month. It's the first time I've never released a direct
sequel before, so it's proving interesting. Watch out for that touring the
blogosphere in mid-August.
As for active, butt in chair, fingers on keys writing, it's
been going between a few things, including blogging. I've been slacking off on
my blog for a while, but I'm rising back up to the challenge. So you'll get to
see a lot more of my smiling… words?
I've also thrown together a few shorts for various
anthologies: Mortimer, the story of a girl and her pet monster, The Bruja's
Gate, a tale of Dia de los Muertos gone off kilter, and Saur, a quick bit of
flash set after an interplanetary war. So, keep an eye out for those.
Most of my time, as of late, has been spent dealing with The
Park, a record of a controversial reality show from. Journals kept by the
contestants, eMails from within the production company, reviews; all combined
together to create a single cohesive record.
So, you can keep your eye out for that in the near future as
well.
That's what's been happening lately. If you want to keep
caught up on all my other goings on, just follow me up top. It only costs a
couple seconds and a bit of your soul. But souls are highly overrated, anyway.
