Because it’s been a while since I posted any pictures of my cats. And the internet is all about cats. 
Someday I’ll write a thrilling blog post about plotting and theatre stuff, but not today. Today the internet is for cat pictures.
At least, that’s where I need to be for the next week and a half. ConCarolinas is coming up fast, and with it a pretty healthy panel schedule, plus hopefully scads of people clamoring for print editions of my books. But before I’m cut loose upon the unsuspecting hordes at the Hilton University Place in Charlotte, I’ve got revisions to work on. I’ve handed the revisions for Hard Day’s Knight off to the line editor, but while I’m waiting on those notes to come in, it’s time to tackle Back in Black. I’ll admit that there are some plotting issues with this book that I’ve noticed since publication, so it’s a good idea to go back and lay hands on it one last time. I did a quick pass this morning and got through the first nine chapters, so hopefully I can get through the first pass this week, then run through it again next week before it’s ConCarolinas time.
So here’s my current schedule for ConCarolinas –
Friday – I got nothing scheduled, so I’ll be at my table or crashing interesting panels that my friends are on.
Saturday – 9AM (I’m new, I get the primo slots) – The Next Step – So you’ve finished your book, what now? With David B. Coe, Gray Rinehart, Edmund Schubert and some folks I don’t know but am looking forward to meeting.
Saturday – noon – Kidnapping Your Muse – What to do when your words won’t flow well – With Stuart Jaffe, Rachel Aaron, Nicole Givens Kurtz and even more folks I haven’t met yet, so more new folks!
Saturday – 2PM – Bringing Life to Your Characters – another one with David Coe, adding James Maxey and A.J. Hartley to the mix, plus others.
Sunday – 1PM – Agents and how to find one – I suppose I’m on this panel for the “I don’t need one” perspective, but I dunno. Me, Rachel, Gray, Edmund, Gail Z. Martin and Angie Smibert.
I’m a little under-untilized at this one, but that’s normal for my first year guesting at a con. I’ll likely crash a couple of other panels, especially some of the ebook and self-pub panels on Sunday, and maybe some of the horror panels on Friday. Depends on how I feel and what the panel looks like, If it’s understaffed and I’m friends with the moderator, I might hop on. Otherwise I’ll probably behave myself. But you can find me in the author’s alley outside the panel rooms hawking my wares and hoping that the new Bubba print collection sells as well as I anticipate.
See you there!
I barely got the songs from 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee out of my head before it was time to load in the first annual Blumey Awards. This is a local high school musical theatre awards program that’s tied to the national Jimmy awards (I think, or something like it) that gives scholarships, awards and a trip to New York for one lucky school. All for excelling in musical theatre. It’s pretty cool.
But I’ve crammed a bunch of hours in the theatre into the last three days. 8AM-5PM Thursday, 8AM-10PM yesterday, and a light day today, just 2PM-6PM. Then noon – 10PM tomorrow and I’m done. For this year. I’ve written somewhere around 150 light cues for ten musical numbers, none of which I’ve seen or heard in their full performance form, and there’s no real rehearsal.
Good thing we’ve got some awesome technicians, a great stage management team and an LD who cut his teeth on rock n’ roll. It’ll be a lot of fun tomorrow, and I hope I’ll get a chance to get some good photos.
But the big news is that I’ve been restocking my books, and I’ve ordered a SHITLOAD of print editions. I now have plenty of Black Knight Chronicles, Chosen, Headshot, Genesis and Bubba collections for these upcoming cons, and I’ll be putting up buy links here in the next week. But if you want to get your paws on them first, join me at ConCarolinas in two weeks! That’ll be the debut of Headshot, Genesis AND Bump in the Night, the Bubba the Monster Hunter print compendium! All eight Bubba stories in one handy volume! Perfect for the library of any home.
The library. You know, the room with all the porcelain furniture. This is a great way to introduce people to Bubba if they don’t have e-readers. Or just buy ’em an e-reader. But for people you don’t like that much, buy the Bubba book. It’s fun.
Something is goofy with Amazon’s uploader today, or at least I’m having issues. So if you want my new novella, which features Cindy Slaughter, a new character, you’ll have to buy it here or on Barnes & Noble until I get all that shit sorted.
Here’s the cover, and a sample. If you enjoy the sample, spread the word. And included with this novella (about 30,000 words, or 100 pages) is the complete first Bubba the Monster Hunter story – Voodoo Children. AND you get Gone Daddy Gone, a Black Knight Chronicles prequel. AND you get the first chapter of Genesis, Book I of the Return to Eden trilogy.
All for just $2.99.
If you have an iPad or a Nook, I can send you the ePub file from here as well. Just click the appropriate box. This would be a pretty good intro to my writing if you’ve got a friend you want to read cool stuff, since the novella is a complete story, then there’s the intro to Bubba and the intro to the Black Knight boys. So help spread the word!
Thanks, and enjoy!
Well, kinda. Here are some photos of where I’ve been the past few weeks. I hope this explains my relative quietude on the bloggy front. 
I’ve been traveling a lot, but now I’m home for a couple months, but I do have one big announcement – I’ll be at NY Comic Con this year! Yep, I’m sharing a small press booth at one of the biggest cons in the US this October. Hope you’ll come by if you’re in the Apple!
Now for where I’ve been – Merlefest was a couple weeks ago now, and it’s always one of my favorite weekends of the year. This year I discovered a couple of great new bands. This chickadee is with a band called Jubal’s Kin. They’re from Asheville and have a great sound. Check ’em out.
This bunch is also from Asheville and is called Johnson’s Crossroad. The singer sounds like a bigger Tom Waits, and their songwriting is amazing. Their album is on my list to buy soon.
If you’ve been around this site for a while you’ve heard me talk about the Hillside Album Hour at Merlefest, which is one of the musical highlights of my year. The Waybacks pick a classic rock album, rehearse it, bring in amazing special guests, and play the album track by track. This thing has grown ridiculously over the five years or so that they’ve done it, and now there’s something like 10,000 people sitting on a hillside listening to some of the best musicians in the world jam to cover tunes. It’s THE thing to do at Merlefest on Saturday afternoon.
Past albums include (and I have been to every one of them) – Led Zeppelin II, Sticky Fingers, Abbey Road and (my personal favorite) Eat a Peach. This year’s selection was Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced? And the crowd certainly experienced something special in this nearly two-hour set!
Sam Bush was amazing as always on the hill.
Susan Tedeschi and the Tedeschi/Trucks Band were only scheduled for one set Saturday night, but they were all over the place, jammin’ on the hill, joining Sam Bush for his Friday night set (their version of Bell Bottom Blues was amazeballs), hangin’ for part of Los Lobos’ set, and then doing their own jam.
James Nash of The Waybacks not only rocked the Jimi guitar, he got political with his Vote Against Amendment One sticker on his guitar. Way to speak out for equality, James!
And for the first time at Merlefest, I got some good pictures of the man himself, one of the living legends of bluegrass, Mr. Arthel “Doc” Watson.
If you’ve never seen Doc live, you’ll be amazed at what this old man can do. I recommend the “Three Pickers” album, with Doc, Earl Scruggs and Ricky Skaggs jammin’ at Reynolds Auditorium in Winston-Salem.
But that’s not all I’ve been up to. I wandered out to Arkansas for the Pulp Ark 2012 con, and had a great time hanging with the folks there.These photos all by Suzy Deacon, who knows how to use my camera much better than I do.
This is what my friend Sean Taylor looks like when he’s accepting his award for Best New Writer (which he beat me out for, congrats!).
This is me chillin’ with Felix Silla, better known as Cousin It on the Addams Family and Twikki on Buck Rogers.
This is me giving the stinkeye to my new friend Link, the Squirrel of Mass Distraction, acquired from my buddy Allan at Kerlak Publishing.
I had a great time at Pulp Ark, but I’m happy to be home for a little while. Next up is ConCarolinas, then HeroesCon, then Fandom Fest, all in June.
Alright, that was a bunch of photos, and a bunch of links. Now I’m off to Theatre Charlotte to touch up programming lighting cues for 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, then back to editing.
For Sample Sunday I decided to turn the clock back to my first novel, on sale right now for only $2.99. If you haven’t checked out The Chosen, here’s why you should –
“It’s deeply funny, very well written, both in terms of pacing and voice, and fast paced.” – Asa C. Page
“The Chosen by John Hartness is an example of all that is good and joyful in fiction. I love this book. It’s fast paced, very well voiced, and genuinely funny. ” – Keryl Raist
“What I will tell you is that this is a well written work that transcends genre. Its a great book that will keep you entertained on a flight with even a crying kid or two. Don’t grab it when you can’t sleep though. It will keep you going til the sunrise.” – Ken Prevo
See, told you. But if you don’t believe me, here’s a sample!
Chapter 1
I sensed him before I saw him. I always did. I was just sitting there, minding my own business, playing a little blackjack, when I felt his presence over my right shoulder.
I spoke without bothering to turn around. “Hi, Lucky.”
“Big A.”
I hated that. He always had to go there right away. And he was supposed to be subtle. Ass.
“Been here long?” he asked.
“A while. Playing a little cards. You?”
“Well, you know me. I’ve got a place here. I love this town. Everything about it just calls to me.”
“Yeah, I think I heard that somewhere.”
I finally glanced over and gave him the satisfaction of a look. A new image for him this time around—red riding leathers, no helmet of course, black boots, black hair tied back in a ponytail and sunglasses. The sunglasses were kind of a given, I suppose.
“Nice outfit. You look like one of the cavemen in that insurance commercial.”
“Thanks. You, as always, look well put-together.”
I’d never been sure how to take his compliments, and I wasn’t in Las Vegas to think, so I just went for face value. I was wearing a worn t-shirt I’d picked up at a roadside store somewhere in Montana sometime in the past, and a thrift store work shirt with “arry” over the left breast pocket. I didn’t know if it used to say “Larry” or “Harry.” Neither was my name; I just gave Goodwill $2.99 for the shirt.
“Thanks.”
For once, he didn’t press the issue. He sat beside me and slid the dealer a hundred. We played blackjack together for a while, me playing green chips, him moving quickly from green to black to purple, all the way up to the yellow thousand-dollar chips in a couple of short hours. He lost just enough hands to keep from getting thrown out, but not quite enough to keep the eye in the sky from getting suspicious.
“A, looks like we’ve got company.”
“You got a mouse in your pocket? I’m not the one who’s been sitting here counting cards for three hours.”
“Yeah, but I’m not the one who took twenty grand in chips out of my safe deposit box this morning. Chips, I might add, that came from a casino that was demolished a couple decades ago.”
I hated that he always had more information than he rightfully should. To give him his due, he probably had people literally everywhere in town. But it was still annoying. I could admit that visiting a box that hadn’t been touched in years might raise an eyebrow or two, but I still blamed the attention of the lummox in the off-the-rack suit on my unwanted companion’s unabashed card-counting. Either way, the brutes in suits might have had a few questions for me that I wasn’t fully prepared to answer at exactly that moment, so I looked at my old pal Lucky.
“Keys?”
“Might I suggest California? I hear San Francisco’s nice this time of year, and you know how much you love seafood. Why not check out Fisherman’s Wharf? Visit Alcatraz, you know, see the sights a little. My bike’s out front. You’ll know which one. You owe me.”
“We’d have to be even for me to owe you. And we’re not even. This doesn’t even come close. Nowhere near close.”
“You really know how to wound a guy, Big A.”
“Bite me.” I grabbed Lucky’s keys from the table, tossed a green chip to the dealer, and headed for the cage. I spotted another security goon between me and the cashier, so I decided on discretion as the better part of valor, tossed a couple grand in chips into the air, and used the resulting pandemonium to make my less-than-subtle way to the exit. As I glanced back toward the table where I had left Lucky, I noticed that he and the two guards were having a beer and yukking it up like long-lost frat brothers, which for all I knew, they might have been.
He was right; I picked out his bike right away. It was a big, loud ostentatious black thing with flames painted on the gas tank. Subtle. I could have sworn the thing looked hungry. I put the key in the ignition—an apple key chain? Really?—and pointed the machine south down the Strip, putting California firmly behind me as Lucky had suggested.
Okay, so looking back on it, maybe opening a twenty-five-year-old lockbox wasn’t exactly the most under-the-radar move I could have made. I knew that people took out safe deposit boxes in this town all the time. But not all of them paid the rent on those boxes with automatic debits from numbered accounts. I’d just had the bad luck to run into the same security guard that rented me the box the first time, on his first day on the job twenty-five years ago. Little bugger had a good memory, that was for sure. I guess I hadn’t changed much since then. Okay, make that not at all. But I was still blaming Lucky. After all, he’d been taking the blame for things for millennia now, so what was one more little incident?
Maybe I should back up a little. This is as good a time as any for introductions. My name is Adam. No, I don’t have a last name. Yes, that Adam. No, really, you can feel for the rib if you like. But it’s better if you don’t. I’m ticklish.
Chapter 2
I rode south a few hours. Just outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico, I pulled over to watch the sunset. And to think. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for Lucky, or Lucypher if we wanted to be precise about it, to show up unannounced, but I hadn’t seen him in years. I wondered what he wanted. He always wanted something, and he usually got it. And it usually wasn’t good to be the one who gave it to him or the one between him and his goals. It was better to sit on the sidelines and watch the carnage, hoping not to get too much splatter on your shoes.
That’s what I’ve done for years—watch. I’ve watched the number of people grow from just a couple to billions of huddled masses, yearning for something or another. I’ve watched people kill each other over pennies in the street, and I’ve watched people give their last breath to help a stranger. And through it all, ever since the Garden, Lucky has been a constant. Always around, always goading something into action. I never know why or what he wants, I just watch.
But our last little interaction was different. For the first time in a long time, Lucky had been goading me. He wanted me to do something, and whatever it was, I didn’t want to do it. The last time I did something he wanted, it didn’t turn out so well for me, so I’d tried to steer clear of his maneuvering since then.
I sat for a while and watched the desert turn from a superheated wasteland to a patchwork canvas of light and rolling shadows. I liked sunsets; they carried the memory of the day before and the promise of the one yet to come.
Eve always preferred sunrises. She said they were more anticipatory, like a held breath before the day exploded like a sneeze all over the world.
Yeah, Eve’s real too. It all is, except for the bit about Lucky being a serpent. That was a little bit of poetic license on Moses’ part. He’d always been creeped out by snakes, so I think the whole serpent thing was just an underhanded way of making sure people overall didn’t like snakes any more than he did. Really, Lucky was our friend, and he was in the Garden with us from the very beginning. Several of the Archangels used to come visit; Gabriel, Ariel, Jophiel, and Metatron were there the most, but after we left the Garden, we saw more of Azrael than we really wanted to.
We really did all live there with all the beasts in perfect harmony. Everybody lived forever, nobody died, and it was all sweetness and light. But that couldn’t last, and it didn’t. Then the whole war in Heaven thing happened, and the angels didn’t come around much after that. When Lucky did come back to visit, he had another agenda in mind—one that changed things for us forever.
Lucky tricked Eve into eating the apple, and she shared it with me. We got kicked out of the Garden and headed off to the land of Nod to live all that stuff you’ve read about since you were a tadpole.
We were out on our own, cast out of our Father’s presence and betrayed by one of our best friends. Things were pretty tough for Eve and me for a long time, and eventually we parted ways. After a long time, and more than a few beers, I managed to forgive Lucky, and we reached an understanding of sorts, but Eve never let it go. Leaving the Garden broke something inside her that never healed.
I guess by now you’ve figured out that we’re immortal. Gaining knowledge of good and evil didn’t do anything to change the whole ‘living forever’ thing we started off with, even though we didn’t completely pass that on to our children. Don’t get me wrong; they lived a good long time. I watched more than one century turn with my kids, but eventually they grew old and died. It seemed that with every generation, they died sooner and sooner until eventually, Eve and I were alone. It didn’t matter what my buddy Clive Lewis wrote about all men being “sons of Adam.” That could never change the fact that my direct sons and daughters were gone.
There I sat, on a little hill in New Mexico, watching the sun go down and trying to figure out what Lucky wanted. He had suggested California, so of course, I headed east, but was that what he wanted me to do in the first place? Lucky was the original trickster, so for him to double- or even triple-think me into going exactly where he wanted me to go wasn’t out of the question.
As I pondered, the first star of the night came winking into view in the east, and I felt my answer. East. I had to go east, and I had to find Eve. Things were gonna get ugly.
Just the damn truth, folks. The older I get, the more I realize that the way I light shows needs to change. I need minions. I’m too old and fat to be hauling my ass up and down an a-frame ladder for a week to get ready for a show. But that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve been editing Hard Day’s Knight for the omnibus in the mornings and working in the theatre in the afternoons. Except for today, because I have a dentist’s appointment this afternoon to get a new crown installed.
Yay.
So I go into the wormhole that is tech rehearsal starting on Sunday, and most shows this is where I die for a week and then come out the other side exhausted but happy with the results. I think it will likely be a bit different this time around, without that pesky day job in the way of my rehearsals! Sunday will still be kinda brutal, with two rehearsals covering ten hours, but that’s the only really bad day we’ve got. And it’s a relatively simple show. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee won’t take nearly as many rock concert-like cues as shows I’ve done in the past like RENT or Seussical. It’s a very cute show, with adults playing the roles of kids at a spelling bee. The cast is in good shape, and I’ve been impressed with what I’ve seen so far.
There’s a new Bubba story out, the silliest one yet. This one is called Hall & Goats, and yes, I’m totally riffing on the band Hall & Oates. Because I can. This month Bubba faces the dreaded Chupacabra! How is he supposed to kill something he can barely pronounce? Check it out on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
This time, Bubba hunts La Chupacabra! Here’s a little preview of the new Bubba story, on sale this weekend!
It was the middle of the night, and I was crouched in a damp, smelly field waiting for something the happen. This wrapped a lot of my least favorite things all up in a nice little ball of suck for me to gnaw on. I hate waiting. I’m a man of action, as they say. I like to do stuff, not wait around to do stuff. Now I’ll admit that some of the stuff I do sucks, like chasing down zombies, or werewolves, or fighting witches or ghouls or vampires or pretty much anything else that goes bump in the night. But it’s a damn sight more entertaining than sitting around waiting for something to show up for me to kill. Especially when I don’t know what I’m waiting on. Waiting to me just seems like a great big waste of my precious drinkin’ time.
I hate being wet, too. I’m a big dude — six-five and a good bit past three hundred pounds. And every damn inch is covered with hair. I got a ponytail that hit me halfway down my back, a beard that reaches almost down to my chest, and a pretty good suit of man-fur everywhere else. I ain’t one of these billboard pretty boys that’s got nowhere for a tick to hide on their cute little manscaped six-pack abs. I got a whole great big fuzzy pony keg of a belly, and that all makes it pretty uncomfortable when I’m rolling around in the cold damp grass. And it takes forever and about three big towels to dry off. I tell you, it’s just irritating.
And as much as I am a bonafide country boy, I’m not a big fan of the smells of nature, if you know what I mean. And this field was full of some impressively natural smells. I much prefer the kind of smells that come from a bottle. Like the sweet, soothing smell of Jack Daniels. Or the glorious lavender-scented cloud of stripper perfume. I once heard a fella say “they call it Destiny, but it smells like shame.” I disagree. It smells like the hopes and dreams of desperate men and women smart enough to take advantage of them. I love strippers, they have an uncomplicated view of life. You give them money, they show you boobies. I have a similarly uncomplicated view of life — monsters need to be killed, I kill ‘em.
And that’s why I was stuck in a damp, smelly field in the middle of the night miles away from the scent of whiskey or the sight of a boob. I had a monster to kill, and as long as the critter was playing shy, I was stuck out there freezing my ass off and bitching to Skeeter over the Bluetooth. Skeeter’s my backup, my technical liaison, my navigator and my best friend. He’d appointed himself my best friend since the day I kept Jason Skoonfield from running his underpants up the flagpole in middle school. I probably wouldn’t have stopped Jason from having a little bit of innocent fun, but since Skeeter was still wearing his underpants I thought that was a little over the line. So me and Skeeter struck up an unusual alliance. I kept him from getting killed for being the only black kid in our school, not to mention the only gay kid and the smartest kid in three counties, and he made sure I passed algebra and got out of high school. Even the principal thought it was a fair trade. He was pretty tired of replacing all the desks that couldn’t hold me, and he didn’t want to deal with the paperwork if Skeeter ended up dead. So he didn’t ask about my grades, and I didn’t tell.
“Skeeter, you remember when Jason Skoonfield was gone run your drawers up the flagpole in tenth grade?” I asked the air.
Skeeter’s disembodied voice came back in my ear. “It was one of the most traumatic experiences in a traumatic youth, Bubba. Of course I remember it. It may have been the pinnacle of my humiliation in that vile institution they called a school. Why do you bring that up now?”
“You know I get all philosophical-like when I’m stuck out here smelling cowpies and staring up and the stars. You ever wonder where we’d be if I hadn’t stopped Skoon and his buddies?”
Skeeter’s voice got very quiet. “I do, Bubba. Sometimes I do, but I try not to think about that too much. And you shouldn’t either, we’ve got a job to do.”
I knew where he was going, and it wasn’t a road I wanted to go down right then. Or ever, for that matter. I looked down at the glowing face of the child’s Mickey Mouse watch and thought back to happier days. Then I gave myself a shake and answered Skeeter. “Yeah, but what the hell is the job, Skeeter? I’m freezing off my danglies out here and ain’t heard nothing all night.”
“You know the monster’s been feeding every third night, and this is the only herd that hasn’t been attacked this month. So if there really is a chupacabra somewhere around here, this is the best spot to find it.”
“Yeah, it’s a pretty damn good spot to get a frostbit sack, too.” I grumbled. “You got it easy, sitting there in your nice warm little command center. Remember, I was on a lake just a few days ago in flip-flops and no shirt, and supposed to be there for another four days. Instead, I’m fully dressed in long pants, a leather jacket and a sweater and I’m still freezing my ass off!”
I heard a sharp intake of breath as Skeeter started to reply, but I cut him off with a hiss. “Shut up, I think I hear something.” There was a rustling sound coming from the fenceline a few feet away. I crept over in the direction of the sound and suddenly realized that the source of the sound was a cow. I got to within three feet of the beast before I could make out its shape in the moonless night, then I scrambled backwards as quickly as I could as the cow unleashed the most terribly stench I’d ever experienced right in my face.
“Skeeter you sonofabith a cow just farted on me!” I screeched into the earpiece, trying to get away from the cloud of methane that was wrapped around my head. I heard Skeeter laughing uncontrollably in my ear as I worked hard not to vomit.
“You know I’m gonna kill you when I get out of here, right?”
“I don’t make the assignments, Bubba, I just send you the emails.” He sounded dangerously close to hyperventilating, and I was dangerously close to walking off the job when I heard the scream.
If you’ve never heard a goat scream, you should do everything in your power to keep it that way. It’s a sound like nothing on earth, kinda like a mix of a human scream with a deeper tone than any human can make, and it can carry for miles. It chilled me to the bone, and put my butt in gear. I started running for the sound, drawing Bertha, my fifty-caliber Desert Eagle as I went after the monster. When I got there, I stopped dead in my tracks at the scene in front of me.
This was not what I had come here to hunt.
No, not like that, you pervs. I just wanted to knock out a quick update on my whereabouts and doings before I head home from Nashville. This makes a good halfway point between Batesville, Arkansas and Charlotte. I was in Arkansas for the first time ever for the 2012 Pulp Ark convention, where I got to make some new friends, hang with old friends and learn more than I ever wanted to know about Lamont Craston and the rest of the pulp heroes of old. If you missed me on the Pulped! podcast, you should go listen to that – Tommy Hancock and I had a great time recording it.
I’m still having a great time working on the Black Knight Omnibus (out this summer!) and Black Knight IV – Paint it Black (out late summer/early fall). I’m learning a ton through the process of working with this publisher and editing team, and I’m sure there’s more to come. We’re polishing all three of the early Black Knight novels, brushing up on some continuity things I screwed up the first time, cleaning up some bad writing habits that I had in Book 1 that I’ve worked my way out of by Book 3, and generally making the books tighter, cleaner and better. I think there will be enough new going on in the Omnibus that even if you’ve read all the books, you’ll find something fun in there. And I’m trying to figure out what kind of little bonus content I can put into the Omnibus for the folks that buy it – maybe an exclusive short story or something like that.
That sound? That was my editor’s head esploding from the concept of editing another short story from me in addition to the revisions on THREE NOVELS in time to make the release dates for this omnibus :). That’s what writers do, we don’t just torture our characters and readers, we torture our editors, too. Love ya!
But I haven’t forgotten the Bubba fans. I’m halfway through the next Bubba short, and it should be finished, polished and uploaded THIS WEEK. I make no promises when this week, but Bubba the Monster Hunter: Hall & Goats will hit before April leaves us, I swear it. And I’ve got more Bubba news – next month you’re going to get more Bubba than you can shake a stick at (I’ve never understood that phrase). Not only will I do a new May Bubba short story, but that will give me four Bubba stories since I released Monsters Beware. That means it’s time for a new four-story Bubba Collection! And with eight Bubba stories under my belt, I think it’s time for a Bubba the Monster Hunter PRINT COLLECTION!
That’s right, kids. Come find me at a con in June or July – ConCarolinas, HeroesCon, Fandom Fest or LibertyCon – and I’ll have a Bubba the Monster Hunter print collection available! I’ll also have print copies of Genesis at those cons, because I’m going to spend May holed up in my office editing, formatting and writing. When I’m not in a theatre, but anyway.
So that’s the news that’s printed to fit for today. See you in the funny books!
Tamsin Silver is an old friend of mine, and I’m happy to lend her this space (and it means I don’t have to come up with a blog post!)
I love being a Fantasy writer. What a fun genre to write in. I’ve attempted to write Crime…and I can do a downright awesome beginning, but blimey, I cannot get past that. Hats off to J.D. Robb and those other folks that write Crime, like Richard Castle. What? He’s not real? Oops, my bad. 😉 (Nathan Fillion, you’re real to me🙂
I’ve been writing stories since I was…ten or eleven (we will NOT say how long ago that was…but I will say I wrote them on an electric typewriter.*shudders*) and I’ve been often told, “Write what you know.” So, when I was redoing my series, Living Dead Girl, a few years ago I set them in the Goth/Industrial scene seeing as I’ve been in that since 1989 (*cough cough* please don’t do the math). We used to always joke that the real vampires could hide in the goth/industrial scene easily since so many “posers” and “wannabes” were there, no one would know the difference. Thus the background for my series was born.
Originally, my series was going to be this love story between a vampire and a witch. Then I set the book down to finish college, become a teacher, run a theatre company, move to NYC, and produce theatre. But one New Years I made a resolution to finish it. As I reworked it, the characters took over. Atlanta fell in love with someone else, the primary plot changed, and I was stuck sitting there going, “Where did my original story go?” Then I thought, “Who cares?”
From that point on I’ve written without an outline. I just let the characters take me on a journey. From what I understand, this is not normal practice. And, it very likely is why I have to do a lot of revision and cuts, but I enjoy the adventure my characters take me on.
That journey got a wakeup call one day when a YA vampire movie, that shall not be named, was all people could talk about. I worried, “What if it’s my story?” So, on a Friday afternoon off, I went to see said movie the day it opened (I was one of 4 in the theatre) and saw that it was NOT my story, not by a long shot. HOWEVER, it made me realize…someday it might be. If I wanted my story out there, I needed to take my dreams seriously.
I sat down to finish The Betrayal (the first book in The Living Dead Girl Saga) and began to shop it around. I told myself I had two years to get a bite on this book or I’d consider going to grad school. Thankfully, I did get a bite, and in October of 2011, Eirelander Publishing released The Betrayal as an e-book. The second book of the saga, Shattered, is in edit now, and hopefully will hit e-book “stores” this summer!
Speaking of October, I was lucky enough to be interviewed at NYC Comic Con this October by the talented and lovely Ana Catris (Link to Interview: http://is.gd/sIbCn1 ). The audience of that online publication is primarily Young Adults. Now, my books fall under the 17+ age range so I’m not used to getting YA feedback. So I asked Ana what they had to say. She told me that they felt the interview made me sound normal, like anyone else they would know, giving them hope for their own writing. That made me supremely happy to hear.
If you have a dream, be it writing, theatre, dance, drawing, graphic design, etc. You should go forth and do it! If you have an original idea, let the world know about it! Have the confidence in yourself. I didn’t have that confidence for ten years and this book sat printed on paper, in a drawer, bouncing about with me from SC, to NC, to NYC. And thankfully I saw that sparkling vampire movie, because it put a boot on my ass…and my simple “love story” became a story of self discovery, strife, love and standing up for what’s right. It’s an adventure not only for those who read it, but for me as well. I couldn’t be happier.
I pray that you pursue what you love. It makes all the difference.
Take care and happy writing! If you are interested in asking me anything…find me on Twitter…I lurk there often! Username: @tamsinsilver
xo
Tamsin J
P.S. If interested, you can snag an e-copy of my book by going to my website: www.tamsinsilver.com and if you don’t have an e-reader, the book will be out in print through Amazon Print On Demand by the end of March, 2012.
For fun, if you like my characters, there are pictures of them here: http://tamsinsilver.com/photogallery-2.php as well as info on each of them on my blog: http://tamsinsilver.blogspot.com/
