Anyway, I'm writing this from the past, so I 'm just going to assume by now I've got a draft of Girl Power: League of Evil ready for initial ebook production. (I totally do!) I'll probably read it again on the Kindle one more time at least before it goes to CreateSpace for a paperback.
There's not much else to do on Boxing Day, so here's my writing year in review. 2010 was a manic year writing wise as I wrote a whole slew of books:
- Change of Heart (Tales of the Scarlet Knight #4) (2010)
- Betrayal Begets Blood (Tales of the Scarlet Knight #5) (2010)
- Future Shock (Tales of the Scarlet Knight #6) (2010)
- Living Sacrifice (Tales of the Scarlet Knight #7) (2010)
- The Heart of Emma Earl (Tales of the Scarlet Knight #8) (2010)
- Sisterhood (Tales of the Coven #1) (2010)
- Chet Finley vs. The Machines of Fate (2010)
2011 was a down year from that pace, as is only natural:
- Awakening (Birth of Magic #1) (2011)
- The Night's Legacy (2011)
- Chance of a Lifetime (2011)
- Second Chance (2011)
- Last Chance (2011)
2012 was way down for that. I didn't even write a new novel last year! The only projects were:
- Young Family (Rewrite)
- Time Enough to Say Goodbye (Tales of the Scarlet Knight #2) (Rewrite)
- Dark Origins (Tales of the Scarlet Knight #0) (2012)
- We Are Now (co-author) (2012)
Then I wrote Sky Ghost: Army of the Damned, which as I wrote a blog post about didn't really turn out as I planned. In the movie business we'd say it's in "turnaround" right now. Sadly I'm not a studio so I can't hire other people to rewrite it. Though recently when I read the first new Wingman book by "Mack Maloney" (it's a pseudonym for someone I'm pretty sure isn't me--though that would be a good M Night movie) in like 15 years it did get me jazzed a little more on that idea. Amazon put the whole series on sale for Kindle so maybe I'll reread those and give this another shot. Plus my brother made this sweet-ass model of the Sky Ghost's plane:
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| Way cooler than any Sim! |
That's something to maybe attempt in 2014.
After that I wrote the last two in the Girl Power series. The last one still feels messy to me. Again it's only natural with how sprawling the plot is. I guess for the last book in a series I like to pull out most of the stops. It's that way with the last Scarlet Knight book, the last Chances Are, the last Children of Eternity, and the last Rebirth. Because if it's the end it should be an epic conclusion! Why go down with a whimper? Plus some wag on Amazon said the first one wasn't plotted "deeply" enough. Challenge accepted, asshole!
The third book is probably the last novel but I was thinking of doing a book of short stories, each one focusing on one or two heroes of the Super Squad. Part of this idea came from reading Ian Fleming's whole Bond series (the ones he wrote, which in my mind are the only official ones) where a couple of the books are actually made of short stories, many of which have familiar titles like Quantum of Solace, View to a Kill, The Living Daylights, and everyone's favorite: Octopussy! If it works for James Bond why couldn't it work for me? So that's something else that might happen in 2014.
Though the thing is I keep telling myself I need to get away from the superhero beat. They don't hardly sell for shit. Since I made the first Girl Power book free I've given away maybe a hundred of it. By contrast I give away a hundred of Chance of a Lifetime in less than a week! Clearly from a capitalist point of view I'd do better to focus on suspense/thriller type books rather than superhero books. The only thing about superhero books is they're fun because you can do all sorts of crazy shit. I mean if you look at the comic landscape you have regular guys, noir-type guys, guys from space, guys from Norse mythology, guys with magic powers, so on and so forth. There's really no limit to what you can do. Sadly I just don't think the market is there--at least not for me. Oh well. It's not like I've spent much of the last 4 years on that...wait a minute...
Anyway, with 4 novels this year I guess you can call it a bounce-back year from 2012. We'll have to see what actually happens in 2014.
9 comments:
I'm just glad you never followed through on your threat to quit writing. I know I'll probably never read everything you write (who could?) but with your talent, you need to keep writing.
(I got a review posted, finally, for "Time Enough.")
Dude, I hope you become a millionaire. Reading how much stuff you write makes me realize I am not a writer if you are the one I compare myself to. I'm such a slow producing schlub. I've only got one book planned for all of 2014. Keep up the hard work, man.
Congrats on your four books and the draft of the next one Man.
I'd like to hear your secrets of writing so many books. I need the help because I'm struggling with this one idea that doesn't seem to go anywhere.
I hope 2014 is a stellar year for you, and countless more people become aware of your terrific writing.
Girl Power was really good. And yes, I read that review where the comment about all those superhero's turned into women being some sort of worn out idea. Me, it was the first I'd heard of it.
And I do tend to be impressed by your output as well.
You certainly have a lot under your belt, sir! Keep the writing and the books flowing! :)
Pat, dude, you are a writing machine. I want you to become mega rich! When you are famous and mega-rich, will you remember I promoted your good self, way back when.
Keep going and we take crap back over in the UK on Boxing Day.
I say go the full comedy next time.
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