I haven’t written anything here for a while, but the recent PHP attacks and all the updates, which, of course, led to a lot of repair on this site, Trish’s site and the Crossroad Press site reminded me I was slacking off. I don’t think a blog needs to udate every day, or a website, but more than once a month, right? It was a stressful summer leading into a stressful fall. I don’t know how many of you have worked a year at a day job under high stress right after being told when the high stress passes they are thinking about putting you part time. 10/10 do not recommend. But I’m not the sort to let things I can’t control wreck everything, so instead I’ve been working.
I’ve reported in the past that I have two novels completed and they are with my agent. The grind of waiting for an editor to take a submission seriously and actually read it, even if their response, is an unpleasant sensation, but it’s part of the game if you take a shot at the bigger publishers, full distribution, etc. What I might not have mentioned, at least not at length, is the disappointing experience I had with the publisher that bought my collection Hickory Nuts and Bones last year. They brought it out almost a year ago… no pre-order period. No shot at Publishers Weekly or any of the trades. Tons of money spent on a website but listening to absolutely zero advice on how to get people to know the website was there. Just about eveyrthing that could have gone wrong went wrong. I’d be surprised if it sold twenty copies, but I’ll never know. I think there are two reviews on it. One is a thinly veiled review by the publisher himself raving about the cover (it is a great cover) and the design, but also ridiculous and off-putting. When my agent contacted him about her copies of the book, and about the fact that royalty statements were due, even if none were owed, he was crude, belligerent, pretended to be an answering service in one response. Now the website is gone, the publisher is gone, the book is still live on Amazon (probably nowhere else because he only got it live there with my help. A complete and utter flop.
I understand if someone gets in over their head. I understand if publishing turned out not to be for them. I don’t understand becoming abusive, ghosting myself and the agent, and worst of all, wasting almost all of the stories I had available that were not previously published, which now, of course, will be reprints when someone actually gets to read them. Thankfully, two of the best will appear next April in a project that’s not fully announced yet, but that will get real distribution and we’ll see how that goes. There is also a publisher I trust who will be reading one of the two completed novels over Christmas and that eases some of the stress.
Currently I’m nearly 54,000 words in Dismal Gothic, the first full-length Cletus J. Diggs novel. It will be submitted through the agent as well, and if it hits, it could lead to the older material getting a second glance as well. It’s been fun working in that world again, and, as usual, characters and situations have taken on minds of their own, and where it could have just been another werewolf novel, it’s got some teeth of its own.
I submitted a story today to the Ray Bradbury tribute anthology After the Fire. It’s one of those rare cases where a story I originally wrote for a themed anthology I missed out on was a near perfect fit for a better project. I revised it completely, and I like it. The cover image for this article is a set of bookends made from boards taken when the tore down Ray’s house. They have 451 burned into them, and they are among my most prized possessions. In the image they are holding a limited edition of my novel Maelstrom, and a copy of The Not Quite Right Reverend Cletus J. Diggs & The Currently Accepted Habits of Nature.Wish me luck.
Quick non writing updates. Read and loved all eight Dungeon Crawler Carl books, Off the Reservation by Stephen Graham Jones, and just read, for a friend, one of the best science fiction stories I’ve read in years. Nearly brought tears near the end. Not mine to mention by project or name, but I will when the time comes. We have a gray kitten slowly growing into a gray cat named Blue, and another rescue from a breeder – retiring – named Libby coming next weekend, my birthday weekend, bringing us to an even dozen again. I took a nap under three this evening, and two are on the sides of my chair as I type this.
I will not take so long hiatus this time. >Insert Jeff Hays as Princess Donut< “You know how I feel about hiatuses, Carl…”