I know, I don’t ever write anything here anymore. I haven’t written anything in forever, it seems like. And not just here, but pretty much everywhere. All my writerly attention has been focused on getting The Chosen ready for publication this fall. I put out a short volume of poetry a month or so ago called Red Dirt Boy, which is available online at Lulu. I described it as poetry for people who don’t like poetry, because I’ve had more than one person tell me they didn’t like poetry, but they liked my stuff. I guess I have a more discerning class of readers :). Or most poetry is intentionally obscure shit. One of those. You pick.

But I’ve got a cover design finalized for The Chosen, and I’m really excited about getting that rolling. The fabulous Lindsay Birmingham (buy her pictures!) did the graphic design for me, my niece Dianne did my editing, and Rob Siders is doing the conversion to e-book for an incredibly reasonable price. I found Rob through Joe Konrath’s blog, which is very helpful for anyone who is interested in the self-pub/e-pub world. I think that folks like Joe and Cory Doctorow are going to be required reading for writers in the new world, as the marketplace changes around us every day.

I decided that The Chosen will be primarily published as an e-book, not just because it’s faster, cheaper and I get to keep a higher percentage of the royalties than with traditional publishing, but because in the last six months and additional 3.3 million e-book readers have been purchased in the US alone. As a matter of fact, you can buy one of your very own here. No, I don’t think all, or even most people are using their iPads as e-book readers. Yet. But with Amazon announcing that e-books are currently outselling hardback books on their site, and with the addition of the Kindle app to the iPhone, Droid and iPad, it just makes sense. Plus, you’ll be able to buy the book for $2.99 on Amazon or $3.99 on iTunes, which gives me a much better shot at selling a pile of books to people who don’t know me than a $15 paperback on Lulu with a $5 shipping tag.

That said, I will do print-on-demand for The Chosen, because I know that a lot of people still want a real book in their hands. And I’ll do real copies for signings and book release parties and all that, because I don’t think anyone wants me to take a sharpie to the back of their iPad. But I can get a professional-quality e-book formatted with a great cover design for less than $500 out of pocket, so that’s the path to market I’m planning. I think the book will be ready for early September, and I’m toying with some ideas like a super-limited hardback run, or something like that.

I’m also working on the beginnings of another story (or two). I have this snarky teenage vampire character stuck in my head, and I can’t get rid of him, so I’ve started a story about a pair of 60-year-old teenage vampire detectives. I also have an end of the world story that I’m toying with about the death of technology and return of magic to the world, but that one’s slow to take off. I really need to win the Powerball so I can quit my job and just write for a living, but the redneck 401(k) hasn’t worked out for me yet.

I’m heading off to a comic con here in a few, then grocery shopping for the gimpy wife. She had minor foot surgery on Friday, so I’m on day 3 of nursemaid duty, which is about my upper limit. She’s recovering nicely and has Darvocet for the pain, so hopefully she’ll be in a place where I can go back to work tomorrow.

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