The next few months are going to be busy on the promotion front.

Upcoming appearances:

Book Signing – Tradesmart, Littleton, CO, May 18, 2:00-5:00 p.m.

Reading, Signing, Panels – OSFEST 6, Omaha, NE, July 26-28

Vendor Table – DragonCon - Atlanta, GA, August 30-Sept. 2 (this promises to be huge)

I’m also planning on Bubonicon in Albuquerque, NM, but it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to do anything except hang out.

Work on the next Ronin novel is coming along on schedule. The text is entering the final phases. Within a couple of weeks we’ll have a complete design, inside and out. All the artwork is also finished.

I’d like to give you a little taste of that. Here is Alan M. Clark’s awesome cover painting.

Here is Drew Baker’s painting. This will appear on the back cover of the hardcover edition.

Thanks to the great success of the Kickstarter campaign, this book will also have interior illustrations by Drew Baker.

I’m really pleased thus far with how the project is working out.

More to come!

Like everyone, I’ve been hearing about digital publishing, e-books, self-publishing, etc., for some years now. This week marks the first that I step into this realm. I’ll be putting out a short story called Legs as a standalone across all e-reader formats, with even a chapbook-style print edition. This is a little scary, because it’s all new territory, and there’s somewhat of a learning curve.

Thanks to fellow writer friends jim pinto, Guy Anthony DeMarco, and Quincy J. Allen, who helped grease the tracks on this little train, Legs will be available any minute now across all e-reader formats. I’ll put up official announcements once all the books formats have gone through the distribution channels successfully.

Of course, I expect the sales to come rolllllllling in.

Well, not really. The average e-book, most likely published by Joe Inexperienced Writer, with cover design by Little Sister on her high school’s copy of Photoshop, sells about three copies, according to statistics I have seen.

The key for me is to just keep putting work out there and letting the marketplace do as it will.

This venture is also scary because Legs could be somewhat of a controversial story. It’s dark, sexy, and twisted. It was actually sold to an erotic horror anthology a couple of years ago, but the publisher pulled the plug on the project before it could be completed. So this story is ready to lurch into the world.

I also felt this step was necessary because after the success of my Kickstarter campaign for Sword of the Ronin, I needed to jump into the self-publishing arena to prepare for that project (which is still in the editorial phase). I entered this project as a learning experience, and if I sell some copies of Legs along the way, I got paid to learn the ropes.

Another impetus was some experiences and conversations I had with Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch at their Anthology workshop in Oregon a few weeks ago. I had the opportunity to visit the offices of their own publishing enclave, and learn a lot the business of publishing and the bottom line for all of us: how to make money in an extremely difficult career choice. (Who am I kidding? I didn’t choose to be a writer at all. It chose me.)

The publishing world is changing so quickly, no one knows what things will look like two years from now. Traditional publishing is not going to die, but it behooves writers to get their work in front of the public, to put the ball into play, as my agent once told me.

I’m excited to be making my first appearance at COSine this weekend. Here’s my schedule. I’m really delighted to be appearing on panels with the likes of Kevin J. Anderson, Connie Willis, S.M. Stirling, Marie DesJardin, Peter Wacks, Guy Anthony DeMarco, David Boop, and Quincy Allen, among others. Looks like it will be a great time, so come and get your con on!

FRIDAY
4 – 5pm – “The Future of our Favorite Vices”
with Marie DesJardin, S M Stirling, Peter Wacks, Connie Willis

SATURDAY
12 – 1pm - “Ebooks, podcasts, and online publishing – the effects of technology on SF publishing”
with Kevin J. Anderson, David Boop, Guy Anthony DeMarco, Daniel Willis

5 – 6pm – “Author Reception, Raffle, and Mass Autographing”
Quincy Allen, Kevin Anderson, Dana Bell, David Boop, Ed Bryant, Marie DesJardin, Guy Anthony DeMarco, Travis Heermann, Carol Hightshoe, Lynda Hilburn, Nikki Hohl, Sarah Hoyt, Paul Lell, Rebecca Lickiss, Nathan Lowell, Wil McCarthy, Rebecca Moesta, Pamela Nihiser, Christopher Salas, John Stith, S M Stirling, Peter Wacks, Connie Willis, Daniel Willis,Shelly Goodman Wright

7 – 8pm - READING

8 – 9pm - “Lovecraft: A Retrospective”
with Ed Bryant, Guy Anthony DeMarco, Nikki Hohl, Pamela Nihiser, Chris Salas

SUNDAY
11 – noon - “Where Worlds Collide – The Art of Writing Parallel & Alternative Timelines”
with Marie DesJardin, S M Stirling, and Connie Willis

I have some great news to report. The Kickstarter campaign to fund Sword of the Ronin has been successfully funded. Thank you to all the friends, colleagues, podcast listeners, and readers who have backed the project thus far. That’s the good news.

Now, the better news. There’s still two weeks to go! Stretch goals are now in place to raise this project to a higher level. I have brought artist Drew Baker onto the project now to produce additional artwork. If you’re familiar with the Legend of the Five Rings universe (a personal favorite of mine since 1996), you’ve likely seen Drew’s work. It is gorgeous. If the funding goes far enough, there might even be interior illustrations.

If you’ve haven’t gotten on board, there’s still time.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1883407/sword-of-the-ronin-novel-project

Furthermore, I’m grateful for any help spreading the word to anyone else who might like to get on board. People who love history, folklore, fantasy novels, samurai films, Akira Kurosawa, Japanese culture, or just plain ol’ adventure stories, perhaps even other people who enjoy supporting independent artists.

Thank you again for you support. This journey is just getting started and it’s going to be exciting.

For a long time I have been steadfastly against self-publishing my work. I have seen far too many self-published books that look like amateurish crap on the outside, and then when I open them up and read a few pages I find that it is sadly true on the inside, too. As much as writers often resent what we perceive to be the gatekeepers in the way of our dreams, traditional publishers and literary agents do provide a value. They filter much of the good stuff from the chaff, add value to the product with professional editing (at least in theory) and copyediting (not the same thing as editing), put a cool cover on it (again, in theory), use the power of their brands and established business platforms to help sell more books (again, in theory).

I have been tagged in The Next Big Thing, a series of interconnected interviews where writers talk about their current projects. I have tagged three fellow authors below, and you can follow the links to their web pages, but in the meantime, here is what I have been up to.

1)      What is the working title of your next book?

Death Wind.

2)      Where did the idea come from for the book?

It’s the adaptation of a screenplay that I wrote with my friend, Jim Pinto. Jim and I collaborated on a metric ton of roleplaying supplements, so a few years ago, he said to me, “Hey, let’s write a screenplay!” So I thought, “Hmmm, sounds like fun.” So Death Wind is the second screenplay we wrote. It was born out the desire to do some sort of little-seen-before mash-up, so we brainstormed some ideas and the idea of pseudo-Lovecraftian zombie western jumped out at us.

3)      What genre does your book fall under?

Horror-western.

4)      What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Since we were writing a screenplay initially, this came up for discussion several times.

Charles Zimmerman, pioneer doctor – John Hawkes

Hank Zimmerman, the town marshal – Lance Henriksen (this character was written with him firmly in mind.)

Amelia Zimmerman, Charles’ wife, schoolteacher – Paula Malcomsen

Little Fox, Lakota medicine woman – Cinthia Moura or Mozhan Marno

Red Horse, Lakota warrior – Rodney A. Grant

Fred McMurphy, gutshot cowboy – Giovanni Ribisi

5)      What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

In 1891, a pioneer doctor investigates a series of bizarre murders near a Lakota Sioux reservation and uncovers a forgotten tribe of nomadic, subhuman cannibals bent on sacrificing the entire populations of the reservation and the nearby town of White Pine to the cannibals’ dark god, a bloodthirsty, sentient tornado.

6)      Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

At this point, I have had several small presses express interest in seeing the completed manuscript. I’m also going to submit it several literary agencies. There is no intention of self-publishing at this point, but where it will end up remains to be seen.

7)      How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

An actual complete novel manuscript took about four months, but I was working from a screenplay that had been written previously over the course of about a year and a half.

8)      What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I’ve never even heard of another book like this one. There is not a lot of Weird Western out there. This book is something like “Lovecraft and Romero dance with wolves,” but it’s a more complex story than that.

9)      Who or what inspired you to write this book?

When our screenplay won first place at the CINEQUEST Film Festival in San Jose this year, and 2^nd place at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival–L.A. last fall, a lot of people were telling us how great the story was. One of the judges in San Jose congratulated me and told me, “This is how Cowboys and Aliens should have been done!”

So the next logical step was to see if the same interest could be found in the literary world.

As for where the story came from, we were drawing on our love of spaghetti westerns, Ennio Morricone, Clint Eastwood, gritty films like Unforgiven, and of course H.P. Lovecraft and George Romero, plus some powerful inspirations from Native American mythology.

10) What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

Sub-human cannibals and a sentient tornado! What’s not to like?

Like Romantic Suspense? Try Kim McMahill -Blog: http://kimmcmahill.blogspot.com; Website: http://kimmcmahill.com

Interested in Erotica and Dark Fantasy? Look up Betsy Dornbusch - http://www.betsydornbusch.com/

Steampunk fan? Check out Quincy J. Allen – http://www.quincyallen.com/

Do you like your historical fantasy really dark, like a good espresso? Coming soon with a new series from DAW Books, E. C. Ambrose. http://ecambrose.wordpress.com/2013/01/02/the-next-big-thing-blog-hop-elisha-barber/

Check out their titles here!

Come one, come all to help me celebrate the month of the release of my new YA horror-thriller, The Wild Boys.

The Wild Boys tells the story of 16-year-old girl who finds herself at the forefront of a rash of strange murders in suburban Omaha, and she soon discovers that the disappearances are just the beginning of something far more sinister.

Come out and support your favorite starving writer!

I have it on good authority from the proprietor of Bean Fosters that there will be someone there giving away free drinks from 10:00-11:00 a.m., so that’s an added bonus!

When: December 29, 2012, 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Where: Bean Foster’s, Golden, Colorado

Why: Because you must have books to LIVE!

How: By pirate ship, bullet train, UFO, skateboard, donkey, or teleportation device.

Celebrating the release of my new Young Adult horror-thriller novel, The Wild Boys!

Since this is the official launch event, I’ll be doing something special, with details still being worked out.

The Wild Boys tells the story of 16-year-old girl who finds herself at the forefront of a rash of strange murders in suburban Omaha, and she soon discovers that the disappearances are just the beginning of something far more sinister.

How many novels are set in Omaha?

The book has gotten some good initial reviews, and I’m looking forward to seeing my Omaha friends.

Come out and support your favorite starving writer!

When: December 14, 2012, 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

Where: Barnes & Noble, Oak View Mall, Omaha, Nebraska

Why: Ummm, because you like to read.

How: By dogsled, spacecraft, rollerskates, galleon, caravan, or mammoth.

It’s here! The Wild Boys storm the publishing world!

Well, not really. Too much hype…

The Wild Boys will change your life!

Sigh, still too much…

Maybe I’ll dial it back just a little.

I am proud to announce that my Young Adult horror-thriller novel has just been released by Damnation Books. And look! Just in time for the holidays!

“A fast-paced novel about love, loss, and the unforgettable scent of once being human, The Wild Boys is impossible to put down.” – Shelly Li, Scholastic Award-winning author of The Royal Hunter: Throne Under Siege

“I recommend The Wild Boys for people who like thrillers, people who like horror, and people who want to read wild chase scenes with plucky heroines (and a dog).” – Kater Cheek, author of the Kit Melbourne series

So maybe you’ve been thinking about grabbing a copy of my horror novella, Snakes, or better still, a copy of my YA horror-thriller The Wild Boys when it comes out on December 1st.

Guess what! Now you can get 25% off cover price direct from the publisher, and this applies to e-books and trade paperbacks.

Just go to the Damnation Books website and order direct.

Click here for Snakes.

Click here for The Wild Boys.

Coupon Code for 25% off! – 12PE9NGO4MDS

And thank you for your support!