State of Writing

I’m still plugging away at a few projects. I have a little more than 1/2 of the final third of the Tales of Esfah done (a fantasy side-project I’m working on) plus I’ve been working on some blogs and workshop presentation stuff. I do have a mini-workshop I am teaching in rural MN this coming weekend (right before a wedding… my family has 3 weddings to attend this month, and a few more throughout the year. crazy busy) plus, my nonprofit has a huge fundraising banquet this  coming weekend. It’s not often that I find myself with nothing to do.

This week I would love to complete the Tales of Esfah series plus begin work on the powerpoint displays for my marketing workshop. I would also like to complete at least two more articles for my SF/F devotional that I’m collaborating on with other authors.

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RSS push to Facebook Workaround Found

I posted back in March about how to automate your writing blog and maximize your platform’s reach. It’s pretty simple: find tools that push your blog posts to those locations automatically so that you don’t need to spend time copying links every time you publish a new post. Unfortunately, FaceBook  shut down a lot of those tools making it harder to reach your audience on some of the most interactive sites.

Free Books

This month I was part of several huge giveaway programs… here is one final one to end the month (it’s more of a Dark Fantasy collection). Go check it out by clicking here. Browse over to it. You might find something you like!

State of Writing

I’ve been hard at work on some new stuff. I agreed to write a few short stories for a blog that I read and I have the second installment completed as of Friday. I’ll get it revised and edited this week while working on the final installment (it will be released as a novella at the end.)

Also, I’ve been cracking away at a marketing workshop I was asked to put together for Indies. I may compile these pieces into a short book as part of the Indie Authors Bible series, but we’ll see.

My big goals are to complete this short story series and then dive back into the other two books I am writing (my CYOA and the next Dekker’s Dozen).

Review: Always Gray in WInter

As a SF/F author I go to lots of comicbook conventions with my books and meet new an interesting folks. I also blog and keep in touch with my readers and I am always somewhat fascinated with the furry community (and being from the Midwest, I’ve never seen a higher per capita number of furries at con than Fargo, ND). That’s how I was introduced to Always Gray in Winter by Mark J Engels.

The book is technically SF/military SF and for a few good reasons. As an avid fan of World of Darkness in my teen years (Werewolf the Apocalypse, Vampire the Masquerade, etc.) I appreciate shapeshifter fiction, and I had always loved that universe’s bastet (werecats,) of which Pawlina Katczynski is one (and the word play in the naming is ingenious.)

State of Writing

Things seem fairly quiet on my blog these last couple weeks. Between my busy work schedule and a few other side projects I haven’t had an abundance of free time to research and write on a few relevant topics… but I’ll be back soon. I have a few short items in the works, some short fiction I’m working on and my CYOA story is about half-done as well. I hope to have it ready by the summer.

On a sidenote, I have a bunch of promo stuff coming up soon and a newsletter about to drop. stay tuned!

Free Books

I’m part of another huge giveaway program this week with many Urban Fantasy books being given away. Go check it out by clicking here. You might find something you like!

State of Writing

I spent all of this last week pretty much under the weather (and speaking of weather, I’m living in a blizzard warning area… right after I put my snowblower away for the year. go figure.)

Despite that, I managed to get a few words on pages. I’m about 10% deep on a choose your own adventure style book I thought I’d throw together. It’s a little harder than I’d expected, but I think my available writing time is more a factor than anything else. I’m splitting time with researching a new workshop module I plan to begin teaching soon (I also revamped and taught one this last weekend and wrote another new piece for an artists retreat coming up next month.)

My plan is to have this CYOA piece (it’s another humor story: Lord of the Fries, about a fast food worker set in a fantasy kingdom where a lowly frycook tries to impress a coworker at MimicDonalds by sneaking into the neighboring rival: Kentucky Fried Tengu,) done by the end of April and then I’ll be back onto Austicon’s Lockbox and full speed ahead on my SciFi.

Dinosaurs, Lies, and Christian Bookstores

I was speaking with another Indie author at a convention over the weekend and she told me of the last panel she had participated at a different con. “I was next to an author who, after I’d answer the moderator’s question, would say the opposite of what I’d said and then insinuate I was somehow lying. He insisted that the traditional model was the only way and that anybody not published by the Big 5 was a no-talent hack.” I was not led to believe that this fellow was printed with said publishers.

His response is indicative of what he is: a dinosaur of the publishing era and someone who refuses to update his thinking based on the modern market and technology. He’s not uncommon, either.

Guys like him are leading the charge towards extinction and there is no easier place to see the fall out of his thinking than in the near-total collapse of the Christian book-selling industry. Within two years we’ve seen the largest two Christian brick-and-mortar book retailers completely close their stores, and the secular publishing world isn’t faring much better. So in the microcosm that is the faith-based publishing industry, what does it mean for Christian authors? The pending changes could be scary…

Free Books

I’m part of a huge giveaway program this week with over 50 fantasy books being given away. Go check it out by clicking here. You might find something you like!