PerfectTown

I've taken a hiatus from writing on Dark Reign:  Portal to the Gods Book 3 to work on my zombie apocalypse book, PerfectTown.  I spent so much time in 2011 rewriting, editing, and republishing Portal to the Gods, finishing, editing, and publishing The Other Side of Existence: Portal to the Gods Book 2, and then writing on Dark Reign that I simply got burned-out on the Portal Series for awhile.  But PerfectTown is coming along nicely and hopefully should be finished by the end of the November.  I have to admit that I'm kind of chomping at the bit to get cracking on Dark Reign once again.

With the birth of my son, Sawyer, in May 2012 my  writing time has been severely limited, but I've managed to find some time.  It isn't like my old post-divorce days of sitting on my back porch swing for hours on end writing on The Other Side of Existence -- I'm now limited mostly to writing an hour here and there during karate class, Devin's therapy, swimming lessons, and soccer practice.  On the rare occasion I find a couple hours to sit on my beloved swing (now on the front porch) to write.  Still, I'm hoping to finish PerfectTown within the next couple months and to get back to work on Dark Reign.  I was hoping to finish Dark Reign in 2012 as well, but it looks like it will most likely be early 2013.

FINALLY -- The Other Side of Existence has been published.

After a long hiatus I have FINALLY gotten around to publishing "The Other Side of Existence" the second book in the Portal trilogy. Personally, I think it is a much better book than the first one and I think "Dark Reign" the third installment coming this fall will be even better still. I also FINALLY (that's a lot of finally's) got around to publishing "The Demon Hunter: 21 Days." It's good to have FINALLY gotten someone to read it. My wife, Malinda, went in a bit apprehensively I think -- she's my wife, so she would have told me she loved it even if she hated it, but she was pleasantly surprised. She LOVED it. I hope many many more people enjoy my writing. I'm not out to try to make a million bucks, but I'd love for some people to get some enjoyment out of my efforts.

Before I forget, I want to throw a HUGE shout out to my buddy Todd Wade for designing the cover art for Other Side. I gave him a few guidelines and he really hit a homerun. Thanks T.A.!










Peace!

A Few Changes

Well...sorry for my long absence (not that anyone has ever read this blog anyway) but I've had a few drastic changes this past year. Due to these changes I've written practically nothing in the last several months. I won't go into all the sordid details, but it involved losing a baby, wife getting cancer, declaring bankrupcy, basically losing everything we own, being moved to a new job at work and taking a $15,000 pay cut, and then getting divorced to cap it all off. So to put it mildly, these past 12 months have REALLY FUCKING SUCKED.....

But hopefully things are looking better on the horizon.....

I'm slowwwwllllyyy starting to get back on my feet financially. The bankrupcy will (hopefully) be discharged within the next month or so and I'll be able to pick up and move on. I haven't been able to write much lately, but I dabble here and there. I just have too much shit going on in my head to really be able to concentrate on a story, but I journal frequently (usually rant and rave), so hopefully I'll get back on track soon. A lot of people have been asking about Portal2, so I need to get cracking on it. I'm currently on Chapter 14 (out of about 38).

Thanks for the support (or lack thereof)....

Portal 2 Has begun!

Well, at long last I've finished Demon Hunter: 21 Days! It was really beginning to be the project-that-wouldn't-end. I had hoped to finish it in Jan 2006 and here it is, Aug 2006. But, it's finished and I really think it's a superb work. Hopefully the publishers will give it a little more love than they've given Portal to the Gods.

On that note, I think the most exciting thing about being finished with Demon is that I can move on to the huge stack of other projects I'm eager to tackle. There are so many stories to tell and so little time. I've been writing a little on Portal 2. I've been calling it: The Other Side of Existence: Portal to the Gods Book 2. (Ok, I know it sounds a little weighty, but if you have any better suggestions...) Anyway, I finished chapter 1 and I really think it's pretty strong. It ended up being everything I wanted it to be, plus some. Today I just started chapter 2. I've only gotten a page or two written, but I like it considerably so far.

Stay tuned...

Writing Lapse

It's funny how even the best laid plans can go south in a hurry. Going into this summer I had all these grand plans to write write write all summer (like I did last summer). And what has happened? I haven't even managed to finish Demon Hunter yet, which I've been writing since last Oct. I was hoping to finish Demon three weeks ago and The Dead End Road and Portal to the Gods 2 by the end of the summer. Now here I am knocking on August's door and I haven't written a word in over two weeks.

I suppose you can thank my wife for that. We went to Branson, MO. for vacation and I've spent the last week and a half remodeling the house. My stories remain unwritten, but the house looks great. Still, I was hoping to have Demon Hunter finished nearly 8 months ago. Right now I'm really knocking on the door. Now that the remodeling project is complete, the writing should resume. Throughout the project, I was simply to braindead every night to write so much as a paragraph.

PS..
Right now I'm reading Scott Oden's Men of Bronze from Medallion Press, the publisher that I'm hoping will pick up Demon Hunter: 21 Days. I'm a little over halfway through it. I'll post a review when I'm finished (not that anyone will ever read it!). Come to my blog...tell your friends!

Review of AuthorHouse

I thought I'd take a moment to give a short review of what I thought of AuthorHouse's services. As you all know, they're the Print On Demand company through which I published Portal to the Gods.

As far as POD publishers go, I thought they were wonderful. I really have no complaints about how AuthorHouse functioned within their industry. They were wonderful to work with. They were helpful at every turn. They took my (somewhat lackluster) artwork and made a great cover. The galley looked really good. Everything moved along on a pretty good timetable. I pretty much got everything that I asked for.

My mistake was in choosing to do Print on Demand in the first place for a fantasy novel. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great (albeit expensive) technology and really fills a much needed niche. When I get around to writing my family geneaology book, I will DEFINITELY use AuthorHouse again. Also, I have a nonfiction book on step-parenting that I plan to write in the future and may be inclined to self-publish through AuthorHouse. But it was a mistake to publish Portal to the Gods there.

The problem lies in the per unit cost. I was hoping to be able to buy copies for around $5 each. To do this P.O.D., I'll have to buy 2000 copies. Otherwise my per book cost is around $9. Geez...I can't afford $10,000 for 2000 books that I may not be able to sell. As it stands, who is going to buy a writer's first fantasy novel for $15 bucks? That's what I'd have to charge to be able to even GET it into a bookstore and make maybe a dollar for myself.

But it was a great learning process. It is one thing to have a manuscript typed up in a word document, but it is something else entirely to see it printed and bound. It was a wonderful experience.

Now Released - Portal to the Gods

Portal To the Gods is alive and kicking! It was released finally in Dec. 2005 and can be found at nearly all of the online bookstores. You'll have to ask for it at the local bookstore.

Now, here's the kicker. In my quest to get published by one of the big boys, I've changed much of the book since its release. I wasn't real happy with the prologue and especially chapter 25 (the big crescendo) so I've rewritten much of them, but it's still gotten really good reviews from those who have read it.

Hope you enjoy it! Let me know what you think.