What’s Coming Up

In my day job, I work with a lot of “new” authors. I say new because they might not be a first-time author but are not well seasoned either. Most are writers looking to get their work out there. The reasons why are interesting. Some want to share a story, immortalize their past with a memoir, publish their poems, and some realized that they are doing this to make money. Not many authors realize that they need to make the jump, a shift, to a business idea and step away from the creativity side of the project.

Writers want to write. Selling and marketing their book is not usually what we want to do. It is always the writer’s dream to get a traditionally published “deal” and have the publisher deal with the marketing of the book. Sadly, even if you do get a traditionally published deal, you will still need to do most of the marketing of the book unless your name is huge and the book is a commercial “slam dunk”.

So why am I telling you all this? Because I have some new projects in the works and its time to start telling the world about it. Time to practice what I preach.

Late this spring (but probably this summer), I will be launching a novella. A nice, little story that’s going to be a fun summer read. It’s in editing right now and I have to admit that I am having a hard time editing it. Not because it needs work but because of my own brain. I wrote the story a few years ago and it’s funny how working on the project takes me back to that time. Also, the doubt monster is making an appearance – questioning every error I have and the changes I make.

Lucky for me, I have surrounded myself with some very supportive people and that helps. The hardest part is getting started, kind of like going to the gym. (For me the hardest part is literally taking that first step to go to the gym.) Getting out of my head is hard to do as a writer because that is where all the ideas come from too.

After the novella, I’m going to clean up Fire and Ice and set it up for the series it has evolved into – at least 3 more books in that series. I’m excited to polish it up and get it a new cover. Sure, I love the original cover, but times change. I’ve learned so much about the publishing world since I started all this in 2007 (published in 2008) that I feel its time to do so.

About this novella. I am still working on the title. Right now I have it as a working title of “Chemical Attraction”, but I’m looking for something else. If anyone wants to take a stab a the title, let me know. I’ll be happy to give as many details of the story as needed to really punch up the title.

Of course, I have a few other projects in various stages of development. I’m even thinking of venturing into the world of non-fiction. So we will see where that goes in the next few months.