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 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!

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!

Oh, the power of social networking. A couple of weeks ago, I was attending the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold writers’ conference, learning about things like social networking, promotion, etc. Since I launched into the Twitterverse and punched the ion engines back in March, I’ve been getting a steady, daily stream of new followers. That’s just how it works.

So I was monitoring my incoming followers between panels at the conference, and then I see James Kahn come through as new follower.

When I was twelve, I read the novelization of Poltergeist. It scared the crap out of me. I think I read the whole thing in two days. Soon after that, I was so stoked about the upcoming release of Return of the Jedi that I could not wait, and I bought the novel and read it before the movie arrived. Both of those books were written by James Kahn.

But being a kid in the days before the internet, I mostly lost track of this guy who wrote two of the biggest books from my early years.

And now, here he was on my Twitter feed, out of nowhere, with a creative life that has gone in a number of directions, as you’ll soon see. A few tweets and couple of emails later, we have an interview. All hail social networking.

His first science fiction novel World Enough and Time, has just been re-released. And it’s available for$0.99 on Amazon for one day only, September 27.

A couple of years ago I was attending the World Fantasy Convention, and at such events, amidst streams of late-night alcohol springs, a person can chance to meet quite a number of interesting people. Why do you think I go to conventions?

At just such a party I encountered Nick Mamatas, discovered his first published novel, Move Under Ground, was Cthulhu meets Kerouac, and I was intrigued. From there, it’s obvious that he is a busy guy. Aside from two novels, he has also edited or co-edited Clarkesworld magazine and several anthologies. His book Starve Better is a collection of witty, pull-no-punches essays that aspiring writers would do well to read.

I first became aware of the name Jack Ketchum whilst reading On Writing Horror, a collection of essays and articles by everyone who’s anyone in the horror genre. (Previous interviewees Joe Lansdale, Jeanne Cavelos, Ramsey Campbell, and Richard Dansky also have essays in this book.) Jack’s essay, “Splat Goes the Hero: Visceral Horror” was one of those that opened my eyes to what good horror fiction is. It’s not just splattering viscera; it’s making the reader care whether a character’s viscera is about to be splattered.

If there is any writing advice that I have completely embraced, it is this quote from film director Akira Kurosawa: “The role of the artist is to not look away.”

This applies to all writing. If you’re going to be a fiction writer, you have to go into that place you find yourself most resisting. This is especially true of horror fiction. It doesn’t necessarily mean putting the darkest splatter directly in the camera lens; it means having the guts to look the blackness square in the face, and forcing the reader to go along with you.

When I got around to reading Jack Ketchum’s novel, The Girl Next Door, I finished it in a single day, and that’s a rare occurrence for me. This book snatched me up and made me look in a way that no book ever had.

I had the good fortune to attend the Odyssey Writing Workshop, and one of the guest lecturers was none other than Jack Ketchum. He said one other thing that I also completely embraced:

“In your writing, examine love always, and binding.”

I’ll leave it to you to chew on that, but don’t crunch the bones.

Having just returned from World Con, I’ve been thinking a lot about the nature of writing as a career, what it takes to create one, build one, sustain one.

One cannot attend an event like World Con (or World Fantasy, for that matter) and not find that one is up to one’s waggling fanboy eyebrows in the likes of George R.R. Martin, John Scalzi, Robert Silverberg, Ellen Datlow, and many other luminaries of the speculative fiction field.