A Little More About Me

Okay, it's been a few days and, with my impending birthday and accompanying giveaway of The Grand Granger for that 24-hour period (see my Twitter feed on the right if you haven't already), I felt it was probably a good idea to share a bit more.

Since I left things focused mostly on my currently-published books and some experiences while publishing them, I'll spend more time talking about myself so you, the reader, can get to know the author better.

To begin with, I am not a city boy.  I like being able to step outside and see trees rather than neighbors, an open field instead of asphalt, and to hear my roosters crowing, my ducks quacking, and the wind rustling through the leaves.  There's nothing quite like sitting in the shade on a warm summer day, savoring a cigar, reading a book, knowing the chores are done and the only thing I have to worry about is one my cats jumping in my lap or a chicken being stupid and pecking at the ash on my cigar.  Yes, it has happened, and it's usually followed by a look of disgust and some serious beak-wiping on the grass.

I've loved reading all my life.  I've devoured books from almost every genre at some point, and when I was sick last year I read almost the entire Discworld series by Terry Pratchett in about two weeks.  If you haven't yet, and you like books that make you laugh out loud and read passages to friends and family members, I highly recommend them.  However, despite dabbling in other areas, I find myself returning to fantasy and science fiction time and time again.

When it comes to my writing I usually have more than one project going at once, which does help me from getting too bored with any one of them, but slows my output and encourages mental and physical exhaustion.  Since I suffer from bouts of tendonitis in my right wrist (and being right-handed), extended bouts of writing will often leave me in pain for days, preventing me from typing excessively or even writing things out long-hand.

Speaking of writing things long-hand, a lot of my rough draft work is done on paper, with a fountain pen.  I find the two-stage process encourages creativity while allowing me to write almost whenever the mood strikes.  Too bad it usually happens after I'm in bed, trying to get to sleep.  Insomnia is often the result -- but so is some of my best work.  If you do a lot of writing and don't need to worry about carbon paper (which is actually the reason the fountain pen lost favor and the ball-point became so ubiquitous) and haven't tried a fountain pen, treat yourself and give it a whirl.  Just don't totally cheap-out or you'll find out why a good fountain pen would last fifty or sixty years of use and still work well and why a cheap fountain pen usually found its way into a desk drawer to be forgotten about as soon as something better could be obtained.

So, we come back to progress reports on my writing.  The sequel to Subject 12, Rogue, is progressing very slowly.  There are various reasons for this.  Without going into detail that's irrelevant at the moment, my free time (which includes writing time) is at a premium and has been for a while, I'm working on the second complete rewrite of the first chapter, and in an attempt to boost cashflow I'm editing an old book I wrote in an attempt to make it marketable.  That I have a sequel to this old one already partly written doesn't hurt, either.  But, have no fear, I am working on Rogue.  My goal is to have it up by the end of the year.

On the subject of Subject 12 and Rogue, another goal I have for the year is to edit out all the typos in Subject 12 and update the copyright page (among other things) so I can republish it.  When I do I'll include a sneak peak at Rogue as a bonus, so keep your eyes peeled because I'll post an announcement here when that happens.  Anyone who has a copy through Amazon will get the update first (though they'll probably have to delete their existing copy on whatever device they have) because of Smashword's publishing requirements.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, everyone, and thanks for reading!