2016 and writing

I haven’t used this site all that much. Partially that’s because I hope to migrate to a new site soon (if I ever get it done) and partially because, well, stuff happened. Among the highlights of 2016 include my developing full-blown Diabetic Retinopathy (costing me the sight in my right eye) necessitating monthly eye injections and at least one bout of laser surgery to prevent the condition from progressing. So yeah, it’s been a year.

But I have gotten quite a bit of writing done this year. The image at the top of this post is of Thomas Willrew and Thea Mendel, the main characters/protagonists of Nameless, the first of two novels I wrote this year. It’s also available in paperback as a test of Amazon’s print on demand service. Buying the ebook is better for me financially, but if you prefer paper, now the book is accessible to you. I also wrote a sequel, Heartless, and if print on demand works out I’ll make sure to put a copy of Heartless on the service as well. Depending on if things change – I’m still hunting for a mainstream publisher and if I get one, I’d definitely go that route. I am not good at promotion.

The Nameless series is about love, ultimately. Sure, there’s lots of action, monster fighting, big set pieces with over the top elements (gods, monsters, giant robots, you name it… Santa Claus shows up to do some fisticuffs at one point) but I wrote them because love is one of my obsessions. Romantic love, familial love, love for friends. Both Nameless and Heartless deal with finding love, building a family, dealing with the fact that your blood relatives aren’t always the ones who are there for you, the pain of loss and the need to keep going. They’re about magic, monsters, wizards, and the cost of getting what you always wanted, and I’m honestly proud of both of them.

If you know how big I am on self deprecation you’ll know how hard that was for me to say.

Besides the whole almost going blind thing, other health related calamities, and writing two novels, I also worked on a book with my friend Pete Milan and which I hope to get finished with soon. We submitted an earlier draft to a writer’s open call and it made the second round, which was great but which was also somewhat frustrating. When you’re a writer who might go blind, being told your book is aaaaalmost what the publisher is looking for but not quite is maddening. But ever onward – like Julian likes to tell me, we can’t lie down, gotta keep moving forward.

I also started a Patreon, which did better than I had any right to expect and which I’m extremely grateful for. It actually helps defray living expenses and made writing Heartless and getting it out in a timely fashion possible, and it’s paying for the Audiobook versions of Nameless and Heartless in 2017. So that’s pretty great, if you want to help support that kind of stuff Patreon is very helpful and I’d be in your debt.

So what am I planning for 2017? Well, plans are what the universe laughs at, but the goalposts are:

1. Get a mainstream publisher or an agent.
2. Finish Faceless, the third book in the Nameless series.
3. Finish the other book project with Pete.
4. Work on more short stories.
5. Get both Audiobooks for Nameless and Heartless done and on Patreon.
6. Get Things That Never Were a rerelease. It’s my first book, I own the rights, I’d like to get that back in print.
7. Stay sane and alive.

I want to thank everyone who helped out, whether it was with my eyes, my writing, or just sent me a kind email this year. It’s been a rough year for me, and if not for my wife Julian, our pets, and the support of kind strangers (and in some cases, those strangers have become friends) I doubt I would have made it. Hopefully 2017 will be better for all of us.

Here’s where I link everything I currently have available for sale because, well, it’s my birthday in two days and the more stuff I sell the better that birthday will be. Considering the year that we just had, any little bit helps.

Nameless (Paperback)

Heartless

At Last, Atlantis (Sellfy PDF)

Bottled Demon

 

Okay. That’s enough for now. I’ll be trying to do more of this kind of thing this year to come. I’ll see you all around, and thank you.

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