I just uploaded a free version of From the Clay of His Heart to the stories area. Check it out. The story made the Locus recommended reading list for 2008 and was included in the Year’s Best Fantasy 9 anthology published this summer.
I’m at the 51% mark with my trim and have cut 10,000 words. Right on target. And I haven’t cut any story, just flab in the writing. Usually when I revise, I add words. I thought I wrote lean, but that’s clearly not the case. Strangely enough, I have to say that I’ve enjoyed every hour of this. I’m loving this edit, improving the flow and immediacy, cutting out redundancies and superflous lines. Who would have thunk?
For those of you who are numbers geeks, here’s a peek at the spreadsheet I’m using to track my trim goals and actuals. “Var” means variance. “CTarget” is the target to cut from the chapter.
Dear Readers,
I currently have two options for opening BAD PENNY, my thriller that I’ll be sending to my agent next week. I’m looking, of course, for the most interesting first page. Please imagine you’re in a book store or browsing online. Tell me which option you find most interesting and by how much (a little more, a lot more).
Thanks!! 🙂
The two men had been keeping back, playing it safe, giving the woman plenty of room on the deserted interstate. It was just after five a.m., the sun still about an hour off. Hardly a soul out here. Just them and her driving in the dark, the two men waiting for her to make her mistake.
Jesus Goroza, the man with tats running over his limbs like demons, thought she was FBI. Dan Meese, the driver, the man with the prison scar on his neck, wasn’t so sure. Wouldn’t the FBI have sent backup at the first sign of trouble? Of course, maybe she’d convinced her bosses she was clear, and they’d pulled back the cavalry. If so, she hadn’t been very smart.
Up ahead the woman slowed then took the exit to a small out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere Utah town called Coalville. In a big city, there would have been cars. There would have been some bustle. There would have been witnesses.
There were no witnesses here. Not on these streets.
There were hardly any homes in this town. Meese figured there were at most a few dozen, and they were all strung out along a main road that stretched for what looked like ten miles. All of them were dark. A bunch of hick farmers dreaming about cows.
A brightly lit Best Western hotel and a Texaco gas station stood on one side of the interstate. A lone Sinclair gas station stood on the other. The woman came to a stop then accelerated up and across the overpass toward the Sinclair gas station on the other side, the one that you couldn’t see well from the interstate. The one she obviously thought might give her cover.
“Bingo,” Jesus said.
In a big city, the Sinclair would have been ready for business. In this no-nothing town, it was dark and locked. The pumps, of course, were on. And the station’s sign with a green dinosaur on a white background towered above the place and shone out into the fading night.
But there was no attendant standing guard over the cash and cigarettes to observe the woman. No one to see her stop and start the pump. No one to see her go try the bathroom door around the side. No one to see the two men pull in just a few seconds later.
Meese said, “Looks like the offerings to your White Lady paid off.”
Jesus pulled the semi-automatic from the glove box. “I told you she wanted mescal.”
Mescal offered up in a glass five days in a row along with prayer and cigarette smoke blown into the Lady’s skeleton face.
“They want her alive,” Meese said of the woman they were following.
“She’ll be alive,” Jesus said.
Frank Shaw sat facing the owner of Cowboy Donut in a back office heaped with stacks of paper in yet another job interview that was starting to swirl the toilet. Trying to get a straight job as an ex-con was a lovely experience. Kind of like being dragged behind a bus.
No matter how tidy you looked or how sharp your resume was, it all came down to two questions: “Have you ever been convicted of a crime?” and “What were you in for?”
Frank knew it would be stupid to lie about either. First of all, he was trying to go straight. Second, any employer who didn’t have a carrot for a brain was going to run a background check. So there was no use trying to hide.
The sun-wrinkled owner of the Rock Springs, Wyoming doughnut establishment was one Ms. Mary Rogers. She was probably in her fifties and had two-tone hair that seemed to take its inspiration from a badger—all bleached up on top and dark underneath.
Ms. Mary had just asked the question, and Frank had dropped his bomb—voluntary manslaughter, a security job gone bad. He’d been protecting the wrong kind of noun for the wrong kind of people, which led to seven fine years in prison.
Now came the fun bus part, the Judas-Priest-there’s-a-criminal-sitting-across-the-desk-from-me part. First interviews were like first dates. And Frank had basically told this date he had an Ebola monkey virus that would make her eyes bleed—would she now like a kiss? That, of course, was yummy to women everywhere.
Ms. Mary narrowed her eyes. “What else am I going to find on your RAP sheet?”
“That’s it,” Frank said. “Just the one unfortunate incident.”
“Murder is a pretty big incident.”
“Manslaughter,” he corrected. “Not murder.”
She made a noncommittal sound and looked down to study his resume a bit more like maybe something new would pop up there.
Curse of a Dark God, book 2 of the Dark God series, can now be published!
That’s the short version.
Here’s the long version that will probably not be what you expect. A little over nine months ago I initiated a contract termination with my publisher Tor Books. A few days ago Tor reverted the rights. This means I have all the rights to all the books in the series back.
But why would I initiate such a thing? Tor’s like THE publisher of science fiction and fantasy.
There are a couple of factors, but I think the biggest issue is that we had differences in our vision for the story. This meant there were things I didn’t like about where the project was going and how it was progressing. It also meant there were things Tor didn’t like about the project and how it was progressing. This translated into some big delays.
We could have hung together–Tor never raised the idea of termination. But I saw no benefit in limping along. If things aren’t working, I tend to want them fixed. So after I raised the issue, all involved agreed that a termination of the agreement would be the best option.
And although all of us were disappointed it didn’t work out, this was an amicable parting. Tor went to bat for me with Macmillan, their overlord, to get this thing done. And we ended up with, I feel, a fair agreement. Of course, my agent was a valuable resource every step of the way.
I don’t look at these last years as a loss. The series was introduced to thousands of readers. And I learned a number of valuable things about the business and craft working on this project with the folks at Tor. We’re farther along now that we were, even if we didn’t take the rocket ship to the stars.
Most importantly, the good news is that for those of you who have been waiting, I can now move forward! The series will be published by Blacksword Books, my own imprint. We’ll start with e-book and trade paperback formats. Both will be available online from Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and other retailers. Once that’s rolling, we’ll look to see if audio is feasible.
I’m very excited about CURSE. My agent loved it. I loved it. My early readers have loved it. I think all of you who enjoyed SERVANT will enjoy this just as much if not more.
Mokad is coming. And bringing all its might to root out and obliterate the sleth in the New Lands. And they’re not alone. You’re going to meet a Guardian of awesome and cunning power who leads Mokad ‘s dreadmen army. You’re going to meet the Dogmen of Toth. And sleth who have rallied to Argoth’s call. And a fearsome ally who lives in the Wilds. All the main characters are back with Sugar and Talen learning new magic, facing new creatures, and discovering unsettling insights into what’s really going on.
I love this book. I can’t wait to get it into your hands.
But there’s a lot to do to get it out the door.
I need to make some edits to SERVANT. There are a number of maddening typos that crept into the manuscript. I’ll also be changing the sequence of the first eight chapters back to my original sequence, starting with Sugar and Legs and then moving to Talen. I know some readers like the sequence my Tor editors requested that starts the book with Talen sitting around in his under pants, but I structured it for him to follow Sugar for specific reasons, and starting with Talen undermines a number of those things. Finally, because I don’t have a word limit, I’m going to be adding some clarity to the ending that wasn’t in the Tor version. I also need to make some revisions to the last draft of CURSE, which has been done for almost two years, and then put it through a rigorous copy edit. And then there’s cover design, interior formatting for the print versions, and the publishing part.
So lots of work. But I think it’s going to be worth it. At the very least I will satisfy the young woman, soon to be a mother, dining at a pizza place I went to this last week who told me she loved SERVANT, thought it was awesome, and was angry at me because there’s no book two!
I’ll post a schedule soon. My hope is to have both books up sometime in August.
Oh, and when they do come out, please know that both the e-book and trade paper versions will be on sale for two weeks. I’m going to put SERVANT on for a massive discount so those of you wanting the author’s cut can get it cheap. I don’t want you to have to buy the book twice at full price. And I’m going to put CURSE on sale as well because those of you who have stuck with me deserve a reward.
Then it’s on to DARK GOD’S GLORY which I’ve already completed the working outline for. There might be another book in the same world about a team of fell-maidens (the female version of dreadmen) given a difficult task. And then there’s a whole other series—different world, different awesome magic—waiting in the wings. The first one in that series is tentatively titled LORD OF BONES.
Get zinged, Baby! The Dark God is back in action.
The Dragon Award winning novel Gun Runner, by Larry Correia and me, is being adopted into a graphic novel by Hound Dog Media. The writer is the legendary Mike Baron (The Punisher, Nexus) and the art is by Marcelo Salazar.
This is a story about a smuggler crew who specialize in stealing battle mechs and selling them to worlds that aren’t allowed to have them. The book is great. I can’t wait to see it as a graphic novel.
This is going to be awesome. Check it out. There’s even a pledge level to get yourself drawn as a member of the crew.
CONduit is a conference for speculative fiction writers. This year’s conference was great. I was able to see and talk to a bunch of writer friends (Dave Wolverton, Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, Howard & Sandra Tayler, Eric James Stone, Ami Chopine, Darren Egget, Skipper Ritchotte, Mette Harrison), make some new ones (Lee Modesitt, James Dashner, Julie Wright, Aprilynne Pike, Larry Correia), plus chat with a multitude of others who are trying to break in. I also got to record with the Dragon Crawlers Radio guys. Nothing better than spending a weekend with a swarm of friendly and talented folks.
I’m amazed at the success some of these people are having:
Of course, we already know Dave Wolverton and Lee Modesitt are some of the biggest sellers for Tor. Dan Wells is going to be big as well. And the Taylers have already got tens of thousands who read them regularly. They threw a great release party at this con.
Larry Correia has had some interesting success as well and came at it from a side alley. He self-published Monster Hunters International. He sold a few thousand copies (no mean feat, especially for a self-published book), with many of the readers coming from the armed forces in Afganistan and Iraq. The book was so good the owner of a large independent store in Minnesota, Uncle Hugo’s, called the editor of Baen Books up and told her that she was an idiot if she didn’t buy Larry’s book because he could sell the heck out of it. So she took a look, agreed, and Larry’s now under contract with a real publisher. It’s coming out in July.
In one conversation I learned the following about the Science Fiction & Fantasy genre.
As for me, I printed up some posters and book marks using Swanland’s art. The cover got a great reaction there. And that’s huge for me because, looking at that Gallup Poll blog I wrote, the cover is going to drive a lot of sales for a new author. I had a wonderful time giving my workshop. And I think I finally figured out which part of my novel I can use for readers. Oh, and if you get a chance to hear Eric James Stone read any of his short stories, take it. I’ve listened to him twice now and both have been well worth the 20 minutes.
I’ve added a number of entries to the calendar, including three conferences I plan on attending.
I know I’ll be presenting at the first two. The title and description of the League of Utah Writers presentation are:
TITLE: The Secret to Getting Story Ideas
DESCRIPTION: How to stop generating great story ideas by accident and start generating them on purpose, whenever you need them.
I don’t know what I’ll do for LTUE. I might do a repeat of the “The Secret to Getting Story Ideas,” or I might do something on how to write scenes or how genre is the key to plot. Stay tuned!
| Date & Time | Event | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Right now | Writing | Office | It’s all for you, Dear Reader |
| 2015, Summer | Release of Awful Intent, a Frank Shaw novel | All major online retail venues | The date is not firm. |
| 2015, Aug 28-29 | League of Utah Writers Fall Conference | Logan, UT | League of Utah Writers |
| 2016, Winter | Release of Hard Target, a Frank Shaw novel | All major online retail venues | The date is not firm. |
| 2016, Feb 11-13 | Life, the Universe & Everything | Provo, UT | LTUE website |
| 2016, May | LDStorymakers Conference | Provo, UT | LDStorymakers website |
| 2016, Summer | Release of Glory: The Dark God Book 4 | All major online retail venues | The date is not firm. |
