Guilty as charged.

My friend Robert Bidinotto also known as the Vigilante Author posted a link on his facebook page to an article titled But I Want Success Now! 
While I really didn't want to read the piece I knew that I should. So I reached down deep and found the courage. It definitely wasn't what I wanted to hear. All I really wanted was someone to tell me how I could become an overnight success next week. What I actually got from reading it was the honest truth. A simple fact that can be summed up in just two simple little words "Keep writing". The author of the piece Boyd Morrison talked about a number of very famous writers who had written numerous works before they actually hit the big time and became the names we know today. It also brought to mind a comment my wife told me about. A friend had mentioned how much my writing had improved since my first book. As I go back and read some of my early work I can see that my work has gotten better with practice. So while I see why Robert posted the article, it doesn't mean that I have to like their advice, but if I want to succeed I really need to follow it. Just as there have been times in my life that I wanted to just quit, it was the times that I refused to that paid off with the biggest rewards. So even though quick rewards would be great, they wouldn't taste as sweet as the ones I have had to work diligently to achieve. While somethings have come easily, the ones I am most proud of, took a lot of hard work and sacrifice. Thanks to Robert, for posting this and for always giving me a nudge in the right direction when I need it.

Changes

Well, last week I ran free promotions for "Shade on the Run" and the western novella, "The Last Raid" neither of which generated any sales afterwards. So that is a technique I think I will avoid from here on. If this seems like complaining it isn't. It is however a statement of the facts. This whole marketing thing baffles me. I will keep writing but not sure exactly where I will be taking it. The next Shade novel is started and well on its way. All outward signs tell me that I should be working on a western because those have been my best sellers, but the characters in Shade keep luring me back into the dystopian future. Not sure exactly why that is but, I am following where they lead.

I have some ideas for westerns that I would like to follow up on, but I haven't had the time to do the research needed. While most of my work is fiction, I do want to make sure that it is as close to fact as possible. Authors who fail to do their homework drive me nuts. A note to budding authors, do your own research. Nothing spoils a good read like running across something that just doesn't fit. Even with my science fiction, I ask people who should know, if something is possible. One of the many real characters who lived in the old west that fascinates me is the man they called Hi Jolly. He came to America with a load of camels. They were part of an experiment to see how viable it would be to use them in the Southwest. The Civil War put an end to the project, but not Hi Jolly. He made such a name for himself that when they buried him in the tiny town of Quartzsite Arizona, they built a monument over the grave along with a plaque telling the story of his life. To do the story right though I need a couple of days at least to spend in Quartzsite during the week, so that I can get to city hall and the public library. I am also working on a story about what might have happened to some of the horses the Nez Perce were forced to sell off after Chief Joseph surrendered. Only time will tell, in the mean time I will continue to move forward hoping to figure out the whole marketing issue along the way.

New Year 2013

It is hard to believe that it has been this long since I posted here. The last two months of 2012 were spent running from Portland OR. to Edmonton Alberta. With Internet connections sketchy in Canada it was hard to keep up with a lot of things. That is all behind me now, at least for a while. Hopefully I will be able to spend more time working on the next Shade book. I thought that I was finished with that character for the moment, but he had other ideas. Since the story takes place in a dystopian future where a large Government is in total control, the present political scene is offering a lot of ideas as to how it all happens.

 I have often said that we would not be destroyed by an outside enemy, rather we would give our freedoms away. I am also looking at a way to explain where the Subs (characters who live below the grid in the Shade stories) came from. If you are not familiar with this storyline please check out the short story Shade that started the whole concept. After that you can check out the follow up novel Shade on the Run which takes the short story to a new level. So far I haven't even figured out a working title for the next one.

As with any large unaccountable government there will be those in the upper echelons who will think that they are free to do as they want without repercussions. The new novel starts with one of those officials finding out differently. Here I hope to be able to show that there will always be those who will cherish the ideas of freedom and liberty that our country was founded on. It may be that someday it will only be found in the remote wilderness areas, but it will always find a way to survive. This will be a little darker than most of my work, but as with all of what I write, I hope that it also offers a ray of hope.