2 Preorders. 7 Minutes.

Before I get started, let me say how grateful I am for everyone who is jumping into the Iron Dragon series right now. Book one is free!

Alright. Start the timer.

I recently launched the preorders for the next two Iron Dragon books. Both are pretty short. Book four is fully-drafted and almost done with edits. That one drops in May, and goes by the title “Operation Hourglass”. Book Five “Parasite Games” has my attention and will be out in early June. Both of these little books really kicked my ass in the development stage, but now that they’re on their way I couldn’t be happier with ’em.

Why write a post now?

Well, promotion, for one. Joyful energy for another. Seven minutes to spare for a third.

But seriously, I’m pumped to be fully-invested in my writing career for at least a little longer, before I have to go make more money by getting another day job.

I know, I know. People who have just read my the work of my career-long nemesis Dan Brown, or watched Nathan Fillion in “Castle” might think authors are rich by nature. We aren’t.

That applies especially to folks like myself. I haven’t broken out yet.

Of the roughly 20,000 copies I’ve moved since 2015, most went out for free.

That’s okay as it goes, but my dream is still to make my living doing what I love.

Who could ask for more? I ask, but I really don’t want much else.

It’s a tall order.

But I love this work. I’m joyful to be able to do it, and the response to the new preorders so far has made me hopeful for the future.

There’s the beep. Thanks for reading.

7 Minutes of Realizations worth Remembering

I watched Dune Part 2 this week and loved it. I watched the second season of the anime Jujutsu Kaisen this year, and I loved that too. I sometimes rewatch favorite episodes of that season. It’s pretty much brilliant, in my opinion.

I watch a lot of things I don’t love as well.

Most of these unloved things I watch on youtube. That’s all I’ll say about them today.

However, there are many good, thought-provoking creators on youtube. One of them (ShaelinWrites) combined with my viewing of the second new Dune film to remind me of how much I love worldbuilding. I grew up with worldbuilding, but I’d forgotten how much fun it can be to reach with it.

As much as I disliked the series, “The Giant’s Star,” I somehow fell into a trap it descrived well while writing over the past few years.

Like the gentle alien giants of those books, I “…ceased to dream.” At least, that’s how I feel now.

I forgot that the greatest answer to why build an internally consistent and original world, the only retort that really matters is this: Why not?

In a moment that felt like I was awakening to a newfound love and escaping a mind trap all at once, I remembered.

I don’t want to forget this feeling, this sense.

I can’t believe I’d forgotten a few basic lessons that I once knew like the back of my hand.

One: Words a writer makes are never wasted.

Two: A struggle or rush is how things go wrong. Don’t rush.

The timer is beeping. Thanks for reading.

My latest releases

Death’s Door and World Spawn, and The Fiend Network.

At Last 7 Minutes about Launching Books

Hello reader!

January was a wild month for me. More on that later in the posts, perhaps.

Late in the month, I finished my run at my first ever non-writing job, and I’m proud to report I got back to creating books as my main occupation, at least for the moment.

Even with only a week left between the time I wrapped up my employment at UPS and now, I managed to finish editing a book and release it. I also did a short story on the first day of my new schedule, just to prove I could.

The short tale is called Iron Driver, and it’s a science fantasy exorcism tale in a corner of my larger fantasy mythos.

The book is the third tale in my Iron Dragon series. It’s called the The Fiend Network, and I’m very proud of this little novel or short book, or whatever you want to call it.

I moved all my books to be available widely, and I’m excited to work on more in February, March, April, and hopefully beyond.

Anyway, I’m running out of time, so I want to get back to the madness of my January this year.

I encountered some extreme depressive feelings at the start of the month, which helped me decided to leave UPS. Nothing against the company or my coworkers. I had many good times loading those package cars and working with folks there. After that, I turned 34, and moved on from the day job.

I finished up The Fiend Network and Iron Driver and that brings us to now.

February 1st.

Hope your year is off to a good start, reader.

Thanks for following my work.

Share, enjoy, and keep on reading.

I’ll write again soon.

7 Minutes of Hanging On

Around 20 years ago, when I was just becoming a teenager (GOD I FEEL OLD), I got diagnosed with ADHD. I was eventually prescribed a little stimulant to help with the symptoms and I’ve gotten used to it.

Well, for those who don’t know, the national shortage of Adderall and similar drugs has hit my neck of the woods. I’m trying to keep writing, but its been tough and resulted in slow-going. I don’t know when I’ll be able to get my prescription filled next. I only know I fall asleep pretty much whenever I sit down for long. And I want to sit down. A lot.

Anyway, I’ve been working on Iron Dragon Book 3 “The Fiend Network” and I love the story. The only thing I’m not in a craze about is how slow I am at getting it down.

I love being able to treat my characters like icons in their own right, which this series has really let me do even where I’m at already. The issue I have is that no matter how much fun I’m having, my energy levels remain low.

Oh well. I will keep going. I’ll finish this book. Eventually. Patience is key here. I can’t force myself to work when I don’t have any energy. Hell, even seven minutes of typing for this blog post seems long right now. I hope you’re all doing well.

Thanks for reading. Both “They Have the Scent” and the first book in the Twisted Gods series, “The Forgotten Mask” are free fore the foreseeable future. Check those out wherever fine ebooks are sold.

I’ll be back, possibly to discuss my increasing love for horror films of various kinds. Happy Halloween and don’t let anything bump you in the night, or however the saying goes. For now, bye bye.

It’s Time (Almost). Also, Cover Reveal

Hello reader.

This isn’t a time-limited blog post, though I hope to get back to those soon.

I’m not dictating this post, but I have been enjoying some dictation for my fiction lately, both directly into the computer and into the hand-held voice recorder I use.

What have I been writing?

Well.

Slowly, bit by bit, I have gotten into Iron Dragon Book 3. Re-learning my process has been difficult over the past year since I got into much better shape thanks to my day-job as a teamster.

That had to be stated.

I have learned. I have revitalized what I love about fiction. Right now, I’m feeling it. And right now, I’m approaching the mid-point of Iron Dragon Book 3, “The Fiend Network” which has gotten me to fall in love with the series again.

So, that’s what I’m focused on now.

With my groove on its way to a comfortable place, I feel like its time I revealed the cover for the book I’m working on.

It’s similar to the others, which is one of the nice parts of writing in a series, but not the nicest part.

What is the nicest part?

I’ve begun to appreciate my characters more fully. Now only has the hero and his allies grown on me, but the villains feel like friends as I write them. They’re not all people I’d want to pal around with in real life, but in context where they can’t hurt me? I adore them all.

Hey, whatever. I’m not trying to distract you from what I wrote above.

A cover. To reveal.

The book is still a few weeks out (I’d bet, but I never know until it’s done and released). Personally, I’ve been riding pretty high on the reception of the first book in the series “They Have the Scent.”

But no more distractions.

Take a gander at the cover for book 3.

The Fiend Network, coming in October 2023 (If all goes well).

Stay safe and thanks for reading!

7 Minutes to Blog before I start this novel

Hi.

I meant to write sooner, but that was just not how things have gone lately. I’ve been, perhaps, a little overindulgent in my hobbies lately, specifically Warhammer 40,000, because I mean to get tournament ready force onto a tabletop near me sometime next month.

I really did mean to start writing the newest book yesterday in earnest, now that I have the gaming headset that I’m using to dictate this blog post as well as the book that I will be getting to after this point. However, I am seemingly always, unable to focus for long periods of time at a whim.

The seven minute timer is going, though, so there’s nothing to complain about here that won’t simply eat up more time. I am doing a little cleanup as I go, but mostly this is just a very good headset microphone. I don’t often dictate straight into the computer. Unlike now, where I can see all the words as they appear, I’ve been use to dictating into a voice recorder and have it transcribed later.

The results of the old way were always very rough in prose prior to edits.

It doesn’t have to be that way though. And I’m beginning to learn to use this new microphone in the most advantageous way possible.

The book. Right. I am a few thousand words into Iron Dragon book 3.

Today, I hope to quadruple that number with new words. That may sound ambitious, but you may have noticed that this blog post is significantly longer than some of the other ones that I’ve written in seven minutes. I am a much faster dictation-writer then I am a typist. Indeed, I see this as a way to improve my speed and the power of my creativity as an author. In 2019, when I began dictating the first time, I was able to produce an entire novel of rough draft (Very rough draft) in just three weeks. Well, my books aren’t going be that long going forward. That one was over 100,000 words, and almost all of those words were done in two weeks with one week as a break in the middle.

Revisions, however, were a nightmare.

Anyway, this new book should be easier to edit because I’m approaching it with this new device and with the idea of writing clean prose right from the start. So wish me luck.

I’d almost forgotten, that August 2003 was when I started writing fiction for the first time in a serious way. So, happy 20 years to me. It’s been quite a journey. And now dictating even a blog post, I can say truly, look, parents, no hands.

Stay safe out there folks and have a good and to your summer.

7 Minutes of Being as Open as Possible Online

Hi, folks.

I’ve been feeling a bit down the past few days.

So… what better way to make myself feel ‘better’ than to post in a vulnerable way right here and now?

I’ve been worried about how I’ve screwed up my independent author career lately. I think I already made enough mistakes that readers may not trust my work. That’s just the start of things, though.

See, I’m asking myself what I write in the most genre-specific terms. I know I like to write fantastical SFF with lots of made-up rules and details of strange worlds. My problem is, that doesn’t describe the entirety of my genre-effecting preferences. I like action balanced with romance that is more important than a small subplot but (Usually) less important to the story than it would be in the ROMANCE GENRE. And I struggle with how to pitch my work for these reasons.

Oh well.

Seven minutes really flies now, but I feel like it’s worth adding that I like validation as much as the next author. I recently posted on Mastodon and actually got a reply from a much more successful independent author I’ve only spoken with a few times. He simply thanked me.

See.

That’s all it takes.

Sometimes.

Thanks.

Thanks.

Thank you all for reading.

I’ll be back, and not with the murderous intent of the Terminator. Be kind to each other.

Struggling for WAY more than 7 Minutes

Hi.

I used to be pretty miserable a lot of the time. I’m thinking back a while. Mostly, I remember being unhappy as a kid. Nothing was really wrong with my life or my family back then, except inside my head. Of course.

I got my first ADHD prescription meds when I was around 11 or 12. I got the ones I’m currently taking all these years later within a year or two of that. My memory is fuzzy on that detail.

The various diagnoses helped me understand my challenges, but the ADHD treatment in particular correlates to when I wrote my first novel.

Like many writers, I’d wanted to be a novelist since I was very young. By the time I was Thirteen, I felt like I was running out of time to get started. I wrote my first book to completion around the time I turned fourteen, but until a few months ago I didn’t really consider the spike in creativity and energy that came with proper medication. Nineteen years. I’m a little slow on the uptake, you might say.

The thing is, I would never have wanted to quit writing books after that. I wrote poetry and essays about how much I loved writing. I obsessed over story moments and fictional characters and the growth of word counts. In other words: I did all the things writers do. And I made a fair number of books in the last twenty years or so, though many remain unpublished.

I wouldn’t say I’m a fast author, but I think I’m a pretty decent author. Or at least, I was at one point, capable of making things people like to read. That window of time is much short than twenty years, at least for my own tastes.

But a lot has changed since I was a teenage kid, and I’m not just talking about my hair falling out.

I’ve gradually developed other interests. I’ve grown to enjoy a day job for the first time, just this past year. I guess, my writing has slowed down a lot as well. I think it’s natural that now that I have other activities which offer refuge from reality, some far secure more than fiction, I’d no longer be as motivated to write.

At one point, I couldn’t have imagined letting my writing go this much. My creative gardens that I’ve long associated with the craft of words and stories are full of dead crops and weeds. The worlds I used to love building are all in disarray and their cities are crumbling from neglect. I have not thought about things in these terms until recently, but I’ve begun to fear those gardens and cities and pages.

The little musical group called “Ah Pook the Destroyer” made their first album about the H.P. Lovecraft Dream Cycle with the character Randolph Carter. It’s called “The Silver Key” and I adore it. The story it tells may be about a man who loses his ability to travel to distant and fantastical lands in his dreams, but it seems to me it’s also about depression, that gradual fading-into-gray of the world.

The loss of childhood and innocence is one thing.

The loss of a mature interest in a skill is another, altogether.

I think I still like writing. When I put words down, however it is I do it, I have fun.

But a career as an author? The idea is losing its luster for the moment. I’ve released two short books this year and a smaller piece that I thought could be the first in a series of short stories. That may sound like I’ve been productive to some of you. But I know better. I know, that if I cared about making stories, I’d make them. If I loved the words and the worlds as much as I once told myself I did, not hesitate to play in them.

I don’t know what I’m going to do next.

What do I want to do?

A good question, but I don’t know if I can answer that.

Leave a comment or reach out to me on social media if you have any ideas.

I’m lost right now, but thanks for reading.

Ease up on the Gas Pedal

Hi, folks.

On Friday, I posted about trying to write as much as I could that night.

Turns out, I couldn’t write much. Too worn out after dinner, I stared at the screen, the voice recorder, then went back to the screen. I came up with some good ideas for the story, but I couldn’t get into the process like I wanted.

Oh well. Some days, you’ve just got to let the urge to achieve fade away.

I won’t let it happen every time I write, but relaxation is important.

I figured I should be transparent with this because I have a bit of a reputation for writing a lot in some circles. The fact is, everyone has tougher and less productive days.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

I’ll write again soon.

7 Minutes of Friday Night. Right.

Hey folks.

I’m back sooner than I’ve usually been later and that thought has me all warm and fuzzy.

But tonight, as I type this, is a Friday night in Minnesota.

I, being the fabulously interesting human being that I am have plans, of course.

Feed the fish. Attend a potluck dinner.

Write a book.

Yeah.

I haven’t done this in a while, but I’m announcing it here to help me get serious. See, I’ve got little going on overnight after dinner. Saturday, my schedule is clear and the forecast looks like rain. So, what does an author who has worked hard at the day job all week do with Friday night?

I mean, I already told you.

There is a concept out there that I’ve put into practice a few times before, most successfully with the beginning of my novel, Orphan Mage, when I was 19. I will write as much of the book as I can in the next 24 hours.

Sounds good, right? How much can I do? I don’t know, really. I know a short novel isn’t out of reach with my voice recorder in hand. I know other authors, like Andrew Mayne, have done stunts like this before and gotten some good out of them. I think I can dictate for 6 or more of the next 24 hours. If I do that, I’ll have another rough draft in hand for the Iron Dragon series.

It’s time. Always, it’s time.

The clock ticks toward 6 PM here as I type these words, but I’m gonna be out of time for this post before those digital hands get there. I want you all to hold me accountable. I’ll be back tomorrow night, maybe around 9pm to give me some time to think.

Until then, listen to the clock.