Why I’m Signing the New Night Shade/Skyhorse agreement

Why I’m Signing the New Night Shade/Skyhorse agreement

As has been bruited about all over the ‘Net, Skyhorse heavily amended its letter of agreement to authors earlier this week. I’ve finally been sent a copy, got a chance to review it, and have decided I’ll sign. The agreement isn’t perfect. I still have my royalties cut, but not nearly as drastically as before. [...]

Read more
More Thoughts on the Night Shade Books/Skyhorse Publishing deal

More Thoughts on the Night Shade Books/Skyhorse Publishing deal

I’ve had a few more thoughts on the NSB/Skyhorse Publishing deal. 1) Jeremy Lassen, co-owner of Night Shade Books, posted a letter talking about the deal. In it he mentions, straight up, that the folks who are going to purchase Night Shade need “to make back their investment.” This is cited as the basis for [...]

Read more
The Night Shade Books/Skyhorse Publishing Deal: Why I’ll Take A Pass

The Night Shade Books/Skyhorse Publishing Deal: Why I’ll Take A Pass

It’s no secret that Night Shade Books has had financial trouble over the last several years. Jason Williams has been quite frank about their difficulties, both in public and in private conversations with me. I sympathize—Night Shade chose to expand their list just as the economy collapsed and as digital books sales became an increasingly [...]

Read more
Used Ebooks: The Sky is NOT Falling

Used Ebooks: The Sky is NOT Falling

  There’s been some growing discussion over the fact that Amazon and Apple have both applied for patents to resell “pre-owned” ebooks. Lots of folks have decried this effort for a variety of reasons (like authors not getting paid). Most importantly, it’s been suggested that discounting pre-owned ebook prices would drop the bottom out of [...]

Read more
Mysterious Ways: Chapter Six

Mysterious Ways: Chapter Six

In this chapter I get to describe a few of the circumstances that caused Connor Moran’s writing career to crater. I’ve never heard of all of them happening to a single book, but I have heard of all of them happening to a book. Publishing can be a very tricky game, and this part was [...]

Read more
7 Traits of Enduring Characters

7 Traits of Enduring Characters

Most folks reading this know me as a writer. A smaller percentage know that I also teach writing at workshops and conventions. I really love teaching writing. I was lucky enough to have had a number of older writers who shared their wisdom with me as I was starting out. It is a great thrill [...]

Read more
Mysterious Ways: Chapter Five

Mysterious Ways: Chapter Five

  There are three things hidden in this chapter which have greater meaning. In theology, that would have something to do with Gnosis, which goes to the Gnostic Christian Cults, and that concept would drive T3 nuts. The first is Connor’s driving a Cougar Coupe. At the time I wrote the novel, I’d just bought [...]

Read more
Mysterious Ways: Chapter Four

Mysterious Ways: Chapter Four

In the first draft of this novel, Chapter Four was considerably different. Merlin Bloodstone did not appear in it at all. My agent, Howard Morhaim, pointed out that the book read more like a Connor Moran novel than a Merlin Bloodstone book. I did a quick breakdown of chapters where Bloodstone appeared, and then compared [...]

Read more
Mysterious Ways: Chapter Three

Mysterious Ways: Chapter Three

In Phoenix, there is actually a religious television station at the location described. I used to live just up the street from it. I’ve never been inside, but back when I had a TV, I would watch from time to time. They used to run Bob Larson’s old TV show back when I was working [...]

Read more
Mysterious Ways: Chapter Two

Mysterious Ways: Chapter Two

Here’s the second chapter of Mysterious Ways, my Merlin Bloodstone novel. Though it was written a dozen years ago, and rewritten and modernized last year, it amazed me at how much remained unchanged. Technology references required the the most updating. Human behavior, not really that much at all. Our toys get faster and smarter, but [...]

Read more
Mysterious Ways Chapter One

Mysterious Ways Chapter One

I finally managed to do it: I have published Mysterious Ways. Mysterious Ways is a mystery novel with a few occult elements that I wrote back in 2000-2001—though I thoroughly updated it for this edition. Back at that time I wanted to try my hand at writing mysteries. My agent and I liked it, but no [...]

Read more
Clutching at Relevance

Clutching at Relevance

As some of you may have noticed, my blog has been rather quiet of late, especially in terms of addressing digital publishing. Lots of reasons for that, like Wasteland 2, Secret Project #1, Secret Project #2, conventions, teaching classes, figuring out how to do two POD books for conventions, and so forth. I’ve been kind [...]

Read more