I’m about to run out to the Oregon coast for a three-day writing workshop — a fun opportunity to talk shop with lots of other writers, something I don’t get to do nearly often enough — but I wanted to share this link before I go.

On Monday, Fantasy Magazine, published my collaboration with Ray Vukcevich, “A Stray.” You can read it for free online.

Well, today they’ve published an interview with Ray and I about the collaborative process.  We even included a couple of our email exchanges at the end, which you might find interesting.  I also agree with Ray’s comment that when two people collaborate, then a third person emerges, which was certainly true in this case.  A lot more planning and pre-writing went into this story than is usually the case for me — usually this sort of thing happens more in my head, and even then more on a gut level.  I believe Ray was saying the same was true for him.

But going back and forth about the story via email, shaping it and molding it a bit before setting a word on the page — that was a very valuable experience.  You might find some of our notes interesting too, especially if you read the story, because it shows where we made decisions about the direction the story was going.

Whether those decisions worked or not, well, that’s up to each reader to decide.

It’s not often that a magazine that pays professional rates makes one of your stories available for free.  It’s even less often that the story is a collaboration with a writer you’ve long admired, Ray Vukcevich.

But in this case it’s true.  “A Stray,” a tale of a man who’s slowly going blind and his encounter with a very unusual stray cat, is now live and freely available at Fantasy Magazine.

Check it out.  I’m very happy with this one — I think it’s a good blend of both Ray and my work, something that neither of us would have written quite this way on our own.  And later in the week, they’re going to post an interview with Ray and I about the story and our collaboration, so be sure to return for that.

Our town’s local magazine, Salem Monthly, just ran a brief interview with me about my first book. If you’re interested, check it out.

As I sit here on New Year’s Day, the kids playing with their cousin on the floor beneath me, my wife baking in the other room, a hot cup of coffee on the end table, a computer on my lap, and the sound of the rain outside as I sit here comfy with my feet up on the recliner — I have to think, you know, this is a pretty darn good life.  Of course, all that baking will mean a pile of dishes to do later, but hey, I really can’t complain.  Well, I could, but I don’t imagine I’d get a lot of sympathy points. 

 As far as writing productivity goes, 2009 was a decent year.  Not a great year, but at least back to where I was when I decided to get serious about being a writer about eight years ago — with two new novels finished, another novel started, and five stories out to editors.  As far as publications go, it was pretty quiet, with just one short story seeing print (”The Bear Who Sang Opera” in Analog), but you know, for the most part the publication process isn’t something I can control. 

 Still, 2010 should be an even bigger year when it comes to productivity, far exceeding any year before it.  I made some changes to my work habits the last third of 2009 — mostly just being much more strict about adhering to regular daily word counts — and it paid off in a big way.  So I’ll be sticking with the daily regimen.  Plus I’m doing a short story a month while I’m doing the novels and that’s helped my productivity too, allowing me to switch from one project to another when I find myself stalling a bit.  More than anything else, I measure my success in terms of productivity, so just plain writing more has been intensley gratifying.

And that’s just the beginning.  I’ve got big plans for the website too.  I’ve done a lot of thinking the last few months about what it means to be a writer in the twenty-first century — especially a fiction writer — and you’ll see a lot of that thinking turned into action around these parts in the near future.  No need to say more for now, but it’s going to be fun.  Work, but fun. 

This year will also see the publication of my first novel, as well as two story collections, so it’s already set to be a banner year. 

I’m not big on posting all of my goals and plans publicly (though I’m actually very big on the whole goal thing pesonally), but I will say that my main focus this year is being smarter with my time.  As productive as I am, I’m often aghast at how much time I fritter away.  Since I want to crank things up a notch this year — in all aspects of my writing — it’s not something I can let myself get away with any more.

The 10′ers is a livejournal community of young adult and middle grade authors whose books are debuting in 2010.  Lots of great stuff on the site.  I recently joined, and you can find my introductory bio here:  http://community.livejournal.com/10_ers/322902.html.  I might cross post there from time to time, if the subject matter also seems appropriate for that site.

There’s over 80 other authors listed on the site.    Check them out!

This is Belle.  She came to try us out over the weekend — a one-year-old Boston Terrier looking for a new home.  With Mankato passing away only a few months ago, I wasn’t really looking to add a new dog for a while, perhaps even a year, but sometimes an opportunity presents itself.  She’s a sweetheart, and she’s won over everyone.  Well, not the cats yet.  They’re sulking in the garage.  But they’ll come around.

Fall may have officially began September 22, but it’s only now that it really feels like autumn here in the Willamette Valley.  The air is crisp in the morning.  The leaves have begun to turn brown and litter the pavement.  Another summer has passed.

I like doing these quarterly updates to assess where my writing — and to a lesser degree, my life — currently stand.  I’m working on a new young adult novel, one that should appeal to readers of The Last Great Getaway of Water Balloon Boys, and I’m aiming to have it done by the end of month.  It’s a good thing, because I’ve got a pretty good idea what book I’m writing next, and I’m feeling butterflies in the stomach about it.  There’s two or three other books lined up after that, too.  Always more books to write.  I’m starting to feel a bit like manufacturing can’t keep up with R&D.  In other words, too many ideas, too little time.  I guess that’s a good thing.  Better than the alternative.

Beyond that, I’ve still got a mystery novel that needs a bit more work before it’s ready to send out into the world, so I need to make time for that.  It’s close, but I needed to let it sit for a month or two to really look at it objectively.   

I just mailed the signing sheets to PS Publishing for the limited edition mini collection I have coming out later this year, called A WEB OF BLACK WIDOWS AND OTHER STORIES OF LOVE AND LOSS.  Nothing like autographing your name 100 times to swell your a head a bit — and give you hand cramps.  I’ll have more on that soon. 

I also recently sent back the copyedited manuscript of my other collection, THE DINOSAUR DIARIES AND OTHER TALES ACROSS SPACE AND TIME.  With luck, that one will be out from Fantastic Books early next year. 

On the life front, the summer went by too quickly, as usual.  We’re enjoying our remodeled home.  We spent a week in July camping in our tent trailer in the Redwoods, down in the Prairie Creek area, which included a quick overnite jaunt to the town of Eureka.  We made a quick weekend trip to Minneapolis, Minnesota for my cousin’s wedding — with the added benefit of my ninety-two-year-old grandmother getting to meet her three-year-old grandson for the first time.  Otherwise, we spent most of those warm summer days in our own back yard — literally.

The kids are growing up fast.  My daughter started first grade.  First grade!  It seems only yesterday that I was strapping her into her car seat for the first time to bring her home from the hospital, this tiny, fragile thing nearly lost in the folds of her blanket.  Where has the time gone?

I did something authorly today (pronounced aw-thor-lee).  I define this as doing something aimed squarely at promoting myself as an Author of Important Things, as opposed to doing something writerly, which, of course, has to do with that boring business of sitting in a room and typing.

With a book and two short story collections soon out — and at the prodding of one of my publishers for an author photo that didn’t look like a bad Polaroid – I decided it was time to create a press kit.  Putting my wife’s Cannon SLR camera to good use, we headed down to a local park and spent an hour taking a few photos.  Actually, it was more than a few.  It was 250.  Yikes!  That’s right, it took 250 photos just to boil it down to three or four that were decent.  That’s why I’m not Kate Moss.  Well, that and I like to eat too much.  Plus the gender difference thing.  And, let’s face it, I have the face of a writer and not a male model – which, at the end of our photo shoot, I was actually grateful for, because I was completely exhausted.  I told the photographer I wanted to go to my trailer, but I got no sympathy.  I tell you, modeling is a grueling business. 

Anyway, check out the full press kit here.  It’s just the photos in various sizes and a couple different biographies, but I plan to add more in time.  You know, when I feel like doing more authorly things.

Last week, my editor at Simon and Schuster emailed me the cover to my first novel, The Last Great Getaway of the Water Balloon Boys.  As of today, it’s now showing up on Amazon.com and all the other usual places.  I’m very excited about it, because it has exactly the pulpy, adventure feel I was going for:

I love my name on the hood of the car.  A real nice touch.  I should also mention that the book, which is scheduled to be published April 27, 2010 in hardcover, is now available for preorder.  Amazon has even got it discounted down to $11.55.  Think of it, for just over ten bucks you can order a first edition hardcover to my first book.   If I wasn’t me, I’d order it myself.

And as far as reading goes, this story of two teenagers who steal their principal’s ‘67 Mustang and end up on a life-changing road trip should be a rip-roaring read.  Think of it as The Catcher in the Rye meets Thelma and Louise.  If you’ve ever been a teenage boy, or had a child who was a teenage boy, or known someone who was a teenage boy, or just flat out wanted to know what teenage boys think, hey, this is the book for you.  Don’t delay.  I can’t throw in any special gifts, but you’ll have my eternal gratitude.

I finished a book today. There’s still clean up to do, some detail checking, that sort of thing, but the hard work is done. I crossed a 90,000 word desert and found water at the end. Now I’m going to reward myself by going to a very cool bookstore and buying some very cool books.

How many books is that? Five? Six? I’m starting to lose count. I suppose that’s a good thing.

Out here on the Oregon coast, it’s been a good week. I came out for two writing workshops on adjacent weekends and stayed to finish this mystery. Just under 30,000 words cranked out in that time, which is a fairly good pace. Honestly, I could have done more, but part of the reason I’m here is to socialize and connect with other serious writers — and finding serious writers, people really dedicated to the craft, is not always easy. I can roll down my window driving through town and probably get at least a dozen people to shout yes if I ask if they’re writers, but a serious writer? Someone who believes that really pounding keys, putting in the practice time, doing and not just talking, studying books and not just reading them — well, that’s a little harder to find.

And it shows in their accomplishments: Of the two dozen writers out here, probably a third have sold books and most the rest have at least published some short stories in professional venues. And the ones just starting down the path? You can tell that they’re going places, too, just by their dedication. An amazing group.

What did I learn during this writing week? I’ve written 70,000 words in seven days before, so I’ve done more words, but it showed me that even when there’s lots of distractions and I feel like I’m not very efficient with my time, if I stay at it, if I keep plugging away, the words do add up. A thousand here, a thousand there, and suddenly you have a novel.  I also learned that I love being productive. Or, I should say, I relearned it. I don’t know if I need to be 6000 words a day productive, but half that would be good. Productivity can overwhelm almost all roadblocks, whether they’re emotional ones inside your head (the ones that shout, “This is crap!”) or whether they’re the ones related to publishing (slow editors, the bad economy, etc.).  In the end, they all vanish under a tidal wave of words.

I think that because I knew I had until Friday to finish the book, well, I took until Friday to finish the book. I also realized that I have no idea what my writing process is. It seems to change from book to book, and the more I think I know what my process is, the more I realize later that it’s just me making up a story about how I write. Funny that. Anyway, I just write. However you approach a book, whether you start with a title and a funny first line and go with your gut, or whether you create detailed outlines and complex charts to guide your way, it’s all writing. If you think about it, all that matters to the reader is the book sitting in front of them. It really doesn’t matter how you got it in their hands. Each writer has to find the path through that desert that works for them. Here’s the key: If it’s not working, try something else. Not doing that one thing stops a lot of writers. In fact, it’s probably the number one reason writers fail. They don’t try a new approach, a new method, a new technique, a new way.

What now? Well, there’s another workshop Fri-Sun, this one focused on understanding the complex world of book contracts. Of course, the real reward is I get to start another book. I know just which one too. It’s actually already started, a YA I’m very excited about. (Have I mentioned that my first book is now available for preorder?)  After that, I’ll go where the muse takes me. Unless a publishing contract takes me somewhere else, of course. I may have a muse that likes to play in a pretty big sand box, but he will listen to reason when there’s money involved. Thank god for that. I may be writing simply because I love the craft, but a check once in a while is nice too.   A check with commas in it is even nicer.