The Day My Mind Exploded

Yesterday was fairly normal. I sent back a revised version of the next episode of the Dark InSpectre to my editor, and she sent it back with a few last little changes here and there, and that was that. Then she sent another email with the subject line: Special Request.

I should note here that in addition to Abandoned Towers Magazine, my editor, the aptly named Crystalwizard, also runs a book publishing company with several imprints ranging from scifi to fantasy and several other genres. Her special request was this: Would I like to write a hard, non-paranormal crime detective story for her mystery imprint, around 60,000 words?

I got this email at about 5:00 pm, on my way out the door from work. At home, once I re-attached my lower jaw to the rest of my face, I got more details. Turns out she has a mystery imprint but no real hard hitting crime novels, and she thinks my voice would be perfect for it. I was very concerned about doing this new project and writing The Dark InSpectre at the same time. She suggested lengthening the time between episodes, which I'm not crazy about, but if it helps me write an honest to god book that will actually be published, then I'll make the sacrifice and hope my readers will understand.

She gave me a rough time table of coming up with a plot overview and the first 3 chapters by August, and a first draft a year from now. Long story short--I'm in.

This all happened in the last 24 hours. I'm still reeling.

In Plain Sight, Episode 2

Episode 2 of the new story arc for The Dark InSpectre is up, and it's good!

Here's an excerpt:

I moved down a hallway past ornately framed mirrors into the master bedroom and shone the light on the bed, but didn’t need to. The phosphorescent yellow body outline stood out in the dark. I wondered if somebody was picking one out special for me, too.

I sat on the bed and took a deep breath. The first tel on site had probably done this several times, but I didn’t care. If Laszlo offed himself here, I was going to see it for myself.

Don't deny yourself: http://darkinspec.blogspot.com/

Back in the Saddle

I've taken the last few weeks off from writing The Dark InSpectre cuz I've been involved in some other projects, putting some guest blog and interview posts together and going through an old epic fantasy novel of mine for submission. Fortunately, I'm about 5 to 6 episodes ahead so I can put it aside every once in a while to do other things. But I finally finished those and got back to the new story arc with paranormal cop extraordinaire Jack Garrett this morning. It felt good, I needed to re-immerse myself again. I didn't even write a whole lot, but it got the wheels moving. I'm on episode 8 and rubbing my hands together anticipating where the story will go. Episode 2 will post on Monday.

And did I mention that a story of mine, Cold Comfort, will be coming out in the print version of Abandoned Towers Magazine in the next month or two? Yay me!

Blog Alert!

Hey Y'all! I'm Blogging over at Abandoned Towers Magazine today about cool real life genre story ideas you can write about. Check it here!

Blogging and Antho update

Couple of interesting things going on. First episode in the new story arc of The Dark InSpectre dropped on Monday, seemed to get good traffic.

Also, met an author through my Damnation Books listserv who's interested in swapping blog interview spots. Her name is Kelly A. Harmon, and like me she's a journalist who got into fiction writing. She seems about at the same stage as me, too, a couple of short stories here and there, looking for some good marketing. I look forward to interviewing her and showcasing her stuff on this blog in early May when we get some dates set.

A very interesting discussion has broken out on the bulletin board for that disaster-themed anthology I submitted to, the one that suddenly committed to a three and possibly four-book series. Well, some other authors had the same concerns I did in terms of potentially getting accepted and then not having your story actually hit print till book two or three, which could take years. Someone else raised the point that maybe the editor should go through all the submissions and make sure they have enough quality pieces to support three books before comitting to that, which I think is an excellent point. Someone else noticed that this particular publisher, The Library of Science Fiction and Fantasy, is starting and posting calls for new anthologies faster than they have them coming out, and that maybe they're moving a bit too fast.

All these seem like legitimate concerns to me. In response, the editor for the anthology I'm interested in announced that he now has a co-editor to split the work and so things will move quickly, which I take as a positive sign. In addition, the deadline for submissions is still the end of April, so I guess we'll just see what happens...

In Plain Sight, Episode 1

The first episode of the new storyline in The Dark InSpectre series is now up. It kicks off with a bang. Here's an excerpt:

I flashed on the aftermath of Jimmy’s death. Most of the Department had been out looking for me. When my fellow cops finally arrived, Franken and a couple of uniforms were the first ones there. I was half dead, crazed, and drugged out of my mind. Mary was huddled in her bedroom with the kids, and I just stood in front of the door like a guard dog. Nobody was getting in.

The uniforms find Jimmy’s body, and Franken informs me we’ve got seven, eight minutes before the rest of the force arrives. He knows I’m protecting Mary’s role in whatever went down, tells me he’ll do his best to keep her out of it. The price: I come clean, right now. I looked at him, swaying on my feet; I couldn’t even get a surface read. I rolled the dice, told him everything.

Click and enjoy the ride: http://darkinspec.blogspot.com/

Antho Update

An interesting thing happened with an anthology I recently submitted to, the one with the disaster theme. Apparently, they got such a flood of submissions, the editor and publisher decided to make it a three book series, with the possibility of a fourth. Each edition would contain 9 to 12 stories. First of all, assuming that quantity in this case equals quality (and there is no guarantee that it does), that's great that the publisher would make a committment like that, and it definitely increases the number of stories that will get accepted, which increases my chances.

The only down side is time. Things will take longer. Three times the number of stories will have to be accepted, three tables of contents will have to be put together, publication dates will have to be set for the second and third books, each of which will likely come out staggered 8 to 12 months after the previous one. So my story could get accepted and then not come out for another two years potentially. No way would I complain except my recent history says that small presses tend to go out of business during that time frame. But let's look on the bright side! The deadline for submissions is the end of this month, so I figure acceptances will hopefully start going out end of May. Then the sky's the limit!