Hello from the Close of a Long Absence (or: Shouting into the Void)
Where have I been? What have I been doing? Why haven’t I been writing the next Great American Novel?
All important questions, some of which I hope to address here. And in order to do that, we have to go back to the more innocent era of A.D. 2015.
Back then I was pretty dissatisfied with my professional life. Without going into too much detail, I’ll say that I was extremely unhappy with my day job and had been four years (!) looking for a new position with no results.
About that time, I started doing freelance work for a website called Art of MTG. I had played the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering when I was young, and it’s impossible to understate the influence that this game had on me — especially its fantasy artwork. After I started playing again in 2012, I got it in my head to marry two of my passions: writing and MTG’s still-amazing artwork.
At a gallery opening in New York City in the fall of 2015, I had the good fortune of meeting the proprietor of Vintage Magic, whom I knew about from his YouTube channel. Together we embarked on an extensive freelance project in which I served as the company’s “art correspondent” for a whole year. It took me about 15 months to finish the assignment, during which I produced 24 articles for the site (which are still being published as of this writing).
I’m extremely proud of the work I did for Vintage Magic. I got to interview some of my biggest art heroes and even met ones whom I didn’t even know would become my heroes. I also thought I would be able to work on this project and my fiction at the same time, but this was not to be. The assignment required more involvement than I anticipated in order to produce the quality of work that I expected of myself. As a result, anything related to my fiction had to be put on hold from approximately November 2015 onward.
With the completion of my contract in January 2017, I’ve been eager to throw myself back into all things fiction. Does anyone care? Is anyone reading this? Am I merely shouting into the void?
Who can say? Regardless -- and in an effort to organize my own thoughts -- here is where things currently stand:
-- I updated my website so that it remains “evergreen” and doesn’t need to be updated with news every month. Not that this was particularly time consuming, but it was annoying. Instead, I will be blogging exclusively here on Goodreads.
-- My debut book, The Horse Thieves and Other Tales of the New West is currently out of print. Hazardous Press shut its doors last year, and Horse Thieves is now an orphaned work. Since so few publishers will consider unsolicited reprints, I will probably proceed with self-publishing in order to keep the book in print. More on this in coming months.
-- I have an unpublished short story titled “The Tales We Tell” that is currently seeking a home. It had been accepted for an anthology last year that never materialized. All rights have reverted back to me, and the story is out in the world again. As a side note, I have made more story submissions in the first three months of 2017 than I did in all of 2016. So, there’s that.
-- Prior to my freelance gig, I had finished my final draft of what I hope to be my next published novel. Titled Abe Titterman and the Key to the Universe, it is currently out for consideration at several publishers.
-- Finally, I have begun work on what I hope to be my next novel. It’s obviously too early to say much about this, except that it’s fantasy and that I’ve spent the past month or so doing some great world building and outlining.
Whew! Well, I think that’s everything -- if you were even listening in the first place. If you stumbled here by accident and are concerned that you’ve happened upon the ramblings of an unhinged ink slinger, please continue about your business.
Thanks for reading!
All important questions, some of which I hope to address here. And in order to do that, we have to go back to the more innocent era of A.D. 2015.
Back then I was pretty dissatisfied with my professional life. Without going into too much detail, I’ll say that I was extremely unhappy with my day job and had been four years (!) looking for a new position with no results.
About that time, I started doing freelance work for a website called Art of MTG. I had played the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering when I was young, and it’s impossible to understate the influence that this game had on me — especially its fantasy artwork. After I started playing again in 2012, I got it in my head to marry two of my passions: writing and MTG’s still-amazing artwork.
At a gallery opening in New York City in the fall of 2015, I had the good fortune of meeting the proprietor of Vintage Magic, whom I knew about from his YouTube channel. Together we embarked on an extensive freelance project in which I served as the company’s “art correspondent” for a whole year. It took me about 15 months to finish the assignment, during which I produced 24 articles for the site (which are still being published as of this writing).
I’m extremely proud of the work I did for Vintage Magic. I got to interview some of my biggest art heroes and even met ones whom I didn’t even know would become my heroes. I also thought I would be able to work on this project and my fiction at the same time, but this was not to be. The assignment required more involvement than I anticipated in order to produce the quality of work that I expected of myself. As a result, anything related to my fiction had to be put on hold from approximately November 2015 onward.
With the completion of my contract in January 2017, I’ve been eager to throw myself back into all things fiction. Does anyone care? Is anyone reading this? Am I merely shouting into the void?
Who can say? Regardless -- and in an effort to organize my own thoughts -- here is where things currently stand:
-- I updated my website so that it remains “evergreen” and doesn’t need to be updated with news every month. Not that this was particularly time consuming, but it was annoying. Instead, I will be blogging exclusively here on Goodreads.
-- My debut book, The Horse Thieves and Other Tales of the New West is currently out of print. Hazardous Press shut its doors last year, and Horse Thieves is now an orphaned work. Since so few publishers will consider unsolicited reprints, I will probably proceed with self-publishing in order to keep the book in print. More on this in coming months.
-- I have an unpublished short story titled “The Tales We Tell” that is currently seeking a home. It had been accepted for an anthology last year that never materialized. All rights have reverted back to me, and the story is out in the world again. As a side note, I have made more story submissions in the first three months of 2017 than I did in all of 2016. So, there’s that.
-- Prior to my freelance gig, I had finished my final draft of what I hope to be my next published novel. Titled Abe Titterman and the Key to the Universe, it is currently out for consideration at several publishers.
-- Finally, I have begun work on what I hope to be my next novel. It’s obviously too early to say much about this, except that it’s fantasy and that I’ve spent the past month or so doing some great world building and outlining.
Whew! Well, I think that’s everything -- if you were even listening in the first place. If you stumbled here by accident and are concerned that you’ve happened upon the ramblings of an unhinged ink slinger, please continue about your business.
Thanks for reading!
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