The past few years have been pretty heavy in marketing. They've been pretty heavy in a lot of things, really: covers, blurbs, formatting, editing, even the website. Instead of writing, I've been focused on trying to get my books out there, spending money, and hopefully appealing to fans and a bigger readership - everything from All The Gods Against Me, Snapdragon, to Castle Juliet. These days, you hear a lot about how a series is the way to go, whether it be mystery, romance, thriller, fantasy, what have you. I applaud any author who can write from his or her heart and still appeal to the masses. Some authors are just lucky and they have that kind of drive in them. I also understand how hooking readers with book 1 to sell book 2, 3, 4, and 25 is a pretty decent formula for success. I do have Snapdragon Books 1 and 2, but I'm not sure I could ever expound on that story, let alone want to. I also have the Divinity Series which is pretty raw and gritty to start with, All The Gods Against Me, continuing on with a Calliope, still raw and gritty, but more redemptive, and then wrapping it up with Worlds Away, the most wholesome and romantic of the three. It is the cycle of darkness to light, but honestly, none of that was ever intended. I wrote what I felt and always thought the best way to reach out to readers was to be yourself. I wanted to resonate with readers, make them laugh, cry, even inspire, if I could do that. In other words, I wanted to do for readers what writers had done for me. In order to do do that, I simply had to be myself. That's not anything any writer hasn't said before, and sometimes that means not catering to the market and just being yourself and hoping for the best. That might be the hardest road, and the one many successful writers, marketers, editors, even agents would laugh at me for, but it's the one I chose.
So, for those who have read some of the work, you will notice there is plenty of dark fantasy more so than anything, some painfully brutal tales, heavy on emotional content: Blue Sky Winter, King of Forgotten Land, One World, tales that might be more wordy than they need to be and could probably use another thorough edit, but there are also ghost stories, collection of stories, even a science fiction tale, some children's literature, and young adult fantasy: Castle Juliet and When We Were Dragons, and some stuff in between, like Snapdragon. Despite the versatility of all these books, I think they all have something in common: heart. And I think no matter what you read, that's what I wanted you to experience. No one has me on their shelves next to the giants (not yet, hopefully), and I have lost more money over the last few years than I have certainly made, but I feel like I am least creating what I wanted to create, what I needed to create for myself as a writer: substance. I haven't published a whole lot of new stuff in the last few years because I have been so focused on marketing, but I have gotten back to the formula. Some say as an indie you spend more time marketing than writing. I certainly see where that comes into play, but you have to get back to what made you love it in the first place eventually. That's where I'm at now and hope to stay for a while. It has been refreshing to say the least to write again, and I am very old school when it comes to writing new work. I like to sit there with the pen and and a bundle of paper, coffee or tea, single desk lamp, light music in the background and pen longhand. Then, when that draft is done, I type it all up. It grows and flowers beyond anything I could ever imagine then, and there is something intimate about writing longhand that you just can't seem to get when typing straight onto the computer. That intimacy is where you and I connect, reader, and I want to continue to do that. Despite all that, I have been seeing some pretty glowing reviews, mainly for Snapdragon, and even some for All The Gods Against Me, my darkest and most brutal novel. Seeing glowing reviews for these tales does more for me than I can express. It makes me feel like I'm reaching the right kind of readers and resonating with them, people who enjoy the blend of light and darkness.
Since spring has begun I have immersed myself in several projects. I have a very young children's fantasy I'm working on, something along the lines of Castle Juliet, but with even more magic and imagination. It's somehow becoming an environmental tale on a children's literature level, which I'm not sure I really wanted to do, but it's seems to have a life of it's own. It is about the beauty in nature, the source of magic, and the menacing machines that destroy it all. I might post a chapter or two just to see how things go. I am also working on a crime noir story but with a Lovecraftian twist, a big giant monster like Dagon, perhaps. I like the blend and the characters in it, something more pulpy with a Robert E. Howard feel, but fun, entertaining, and of course, with some heart. I've been watching a lot of those old movies and had a spark a while back, and I think I have what is a pretty good tale that clips along at a good pace. I also have a good old-fashioned traditional horror novel that I'm thinking of giving a little more attention to. I've had this idea since I was about 17 and something happened recently that triggered it to life, perhaps watching the old and newer versions of Nightmare on Elm Street recently, which is always good for kicks. For now, it's simply called, Sanitarium, but I wanted to try and recreate a relentless killer story, but dealing with characters that aren't teens who only care about getting laid and getting high, like our Friday the 13th, Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street movies. It's a lot on the plate and might take a bit more discipline on my end to get them going, but it would be nice to finish something new through the summer.
Being an indie author has given more options to get my books out there, and seeing the good to great reviews makes me really feel like it's worth it. I have even gotten some private emails from people saying some very nice things, so I wanted to take the time to thank every reader who took the time to purchase with your hard-earned money my very own tales, and also took the time to write reviews, or even send me a personal thank you, or even the occasional criticism like, 'how dare you write that,' note. They all put a smile on my face, even the nasty ones, because if you took the time to write it, even if you hated it, it must've struck a chord. I remember Stephen King talking about a nasty letter he got from some woman who regretted reading Salem's Lot because it scared her so bad. His response was something like: "Look, Lady, I didn't make you buy the book. You bought the book. I'm glad it kept you up for three nights. I wish it had kept you up for six nights!"
That's just good stuff.
