This Un-Blog Entry Has No Title (And Other Un-Thoughts)

Yup. Sounds about right. I couldn’t come up with a title, so you get that. Or, as the folks in the cheap seats would say, “We got what we paid for.”

Let’s get you caught up for those playing at home:

I got unsurprisingly punted from the SPSFC2 quarterfinals in January. For those who don’t recall, SPSFC stands for Self-Published Science Fiction Competition. The smattering of scores ranged from “It’s total shite” to “It’s mostly shite”, and one “It wasn’t THAT bad…was it?” Anyway, I had no delusions of grandeur going into the contest. I made it to the quarterfinals again, and that’s that. Yay me. To be fair, it wasn’t a complete waste of time…but it is yet another fresh reminder that contests are subjective, and not everyone will like what I’ve written. I’ve received more positive than negative ratings and reviews (just check out the books on Goodreads or Amazon, and you’ll see…and yes, I should provide a link to them, but I’m feeling lazy right now…and grumpy…but none of the other dwarves, because let’s face it, that’s a lot of feelings for one over-the-hill writer like me can really afford, let alone process. Ok, I’ll stop now.)

That will be the last time I ever put any of my writing out there for a competition. The subjectiveness of it all is something I could write reams of blog posts about, and that would accomplish nothing. It truly is what it is. Instead, I’m packing this one away in a nameless box and burying it where no one (especially me) will ever find it.

Now that THAT’S out of the way…

The audiobook for PIECES OF EIGHT is almost finished! That IS something to celebrate. I’m hoping to release it before the end of February, which is very appropriate given the story takes place in February. I’ve always liked symmetry. And this story has fearful symmetry, oh spider, spider burning bright (if you’ve read it, you get it, and if you haven’t…then go read it! Or you can wait for the audiobook…or you can buy the book AND listen to the audiobook! Or you can just ignore my rambling and get on with your lives. Which is probably for the best…).

Aaaaaaanyway, the audiobook is currently with narrator Todd Menesses, the same narrator who narrated the narration for the nattily narratable BLOODLINES. It’s a longer book because I’m a wordy wordsmith, or as Mrs. Tired Guy likes to say, “long-winded”, both of which are 1,000,000% accurate. Hell, just look at all the crap preceding this sentence. You get the picture.

I’ve attempted to do a daily tweet on The Twitters with a quote from one of the chapters or characters. I’m very fortunate that several of my writerly friends have retweeted and liked the tweets. Tells me that I may be terrible at social media, but I can still pick up a quality friend or two when I put some effort into it.

So be on the lookout for the actual “YO PEEPS, IT’S RELEASED AND YOU SHOULD BUY MY AUDIOBOOK” posts, coming to a social media platform near YOU!

However, the thing I’m most excited about is, well, I’ve decided to shelve THE DEVIL’S SHARE…

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT???? WE WANT OUR BOOK 3! HOW DARE YOU, AUTHOR! HOW DARE YOU DELAY THE FINISH OF THE GUARDIAN OF EMPIRE CITY SERIES!!!!!!!!!!!

(Well, it might not be the final book of the series, but it makes for better melodrama if I say it could be. I know, I’m such a tease.)

Why would I do that?

A lot of reasons, not the least of which is story fatigue. I’m part of a wonderful writing critique group consisting of two brilliant authors and downright wonderful human beings. Their stories are full of life, action, description, pathos, adventure, and other awesome things. Mine? It’s bland. The characters aren’t talking to me the way they did in the first two. And my creativity, which has taken a beating over the past year-and-a-half for a variety of real world reasons, just hasn’t been feeling it.

But not all is doom and gloom!

Y’see, something else has tickled my fancy. A new story, if you can believe it. One that has absolutely NOTHING to do with urban science fantasy crime thrillers. Its discovery came as a complete surprise to me. I’ve written over 10k words of it so far. And Mrs. Tired Guy thinks it’s maybe, possibly, could be, pretty halfway decent.

Which is high praise, coming from her. Usually, I get a “It’s ok” or “I guess I like it” or “Remind me why I married you?”

But this story! This story is magical.

That’s not an exaggeration. It has sparked my heart. Rekindled my love of writing. Filled me with a zeal and a purpose I haven’t felt since before I finished writing PIECES OF EIGHT.

I can feel the adventure. I see the setting. The story. The characters. All of it. I even drew a crude map, which is saying something, because my drawing skills are about as good as the 2022-2023 New England Patriots offense.

(If you know, then you know.)

As I said, this story has sparked my heart. I believe it’ll be considered Middle-Grade. Should end up somewhere between 20k to 30k words. I’ve even had thoughts of finding an illustrator for it, too. But I’m not putting the cart before the horse on this one. I need to finish the story first, and then we’ll see what we’ll see.

More importantly, it’s a love letter to the most fundamental, foundational parts of me as a person, a father, and as a lover of old fantasy. It’s something I wish I had written when my boys were half the age they are now. And it’s something that I truly believe will bring a smile to both young and old readers.

Sadly, there’s no Deacon in it. I’m sorry, but Deacon just wouldn’t mesh with what I have planned. Although I do think even he might crack a smile if he read it. That crusty bastard!

No, no hints. No taste. Nothing. I’m not sharing this until the first draft is complete. After that, I’ll ask my critique group to tear it to pieces. And after that, who knows? If my critique partners feel the story’s magic, then maybe I have something special.

But even if they don’t, it made Mrs. Tired Guy smile. And that’s worth every word I just wrote.

G’night folks.