Latest News

New Collection Coming

Some good news.  I’ll be publishing a collection of my best short stories with Fantastic Books, tentatively titled THE DINOSAUR DAIRIES AND OTHER TALES ACROSS SPACE AND TIME.  I don’t have a publication date yet, but the hope is to have it out before my first book hits the stands April of next year.  Doug Cohen, who in addition to working for Fantastic is also the assistant editor at Realms of Fantasy, where the title story of the collection appeared last year, is the acquiring editor.  Warren Lapine, who owns Fantastic Books and a number of other publishing enterprises, recently bought Realms of Fantasy, which is one of the reasons I approached them about the collection.  Doug was also instrumental in the first story I sold Realms (“The Grand Mal Reaper,” which will also be in the collection), so there’s some nice synergy there.

I’m excited about this for a number of reasons.  The first is that it’ll be great to finally have a collection of my best short stories available for people who like my work.  It’s always tough when people ask where they can find more of my stories and I have to point them mostly to magazines which can be hard to find without a subscription.  I’m also excited because if all goes well I’ll have two collections available before my first book is published.  The first, A WEB OF BLACK WIDOWS AND OTHER STORIES OF LOVE AND LOSS, is a mostly original collection that PS Publishing should be out with later this year in a very limited collector’s print run of only 500 copies.  It’s a short collection, around thirty thousand words, of darker stories all centered around love and loss.  I’m very proud of this one.

The Dinosaur Diaries collection, however, is a more motley mix —  fantasy, science fiction, mystery, light and dark, somber and fun, and everything in between, stories that appeared in places like Analog, Asimov’s, Ellery Queen, Weird Tales, and of course, Realms of Fantasy.  I’ve tossed in one new story, but otherwise it’s eighty thousand words of what I consider my best short fiction so far. 

I’ll have more news on the collection down the road, including a full line-up of the stories, but for now it’s enough to say that I’m excited to make it available to my legions of fans.  Okay, maybe not legions yet, maybe not even a single legion, but we’re working on that . . .

A Perk of Being a Writer – Illustrations

One of the perks of being a writer is that your stories or novels occasionally get illustrated.  “The Bear Who Sang Opera,” which appeared in the July/August issue of Analog, had an illustration I loved so much that I emailed the artist to tell him so.  John Allemand — who said some nice things about my story in return — was kind enough to send me a high resolution image so I could print and put it up in my office (and with his permission, post online).  I think it really does capture the spirit of the story:


(Click picture for larger image)

My First Book Has a Cover

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.

Finished a Book, Some Thoughts

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.