From Humble Beginnings…

Let me start with the obvious: I am terrible at promoting my own work. Terrible. When I think about promoting my writing and art, talking about it, I suddenly feel the need to do anything except stammer awkwardly through the half-formed synopsis of my work in progress. My jaw gets itchy and I need to shave, or pick my teeth, or fuss with my pencils for the millionth time. There is also the eternal lure of cute cat videos, especially Maru.

You probably know how it is, even if you’re not a writer or artist. You want to put yourself out there – go to that party, meet that new friend, ask the girl/boy/other on a date. You want it so bad, but something else pulls you away and the moment passes you by. You sigh and figure it’s probably for the best anyway. No way would they actually be seriously into you.

And yet, I and probably you know somewhere, deep down, that… hey. Maybe they could be, would be. And maybe I’m cool, and nice and funny and, well, maybe they are, too. And one day, when we’re brave enough, we go out and take that moment when we feel it, when your stomach swoops and you force out that first awkward: “Hi!”

That’s how I’m feeling right now about my art – waving my hand, trying to catch a word in a crowded room, and wondering if it’s worth it while knowing, deep down, that even a fleeting encounter is going to be pretty fantastic and leave something in its wake. Something special, something new. You give something and you’re going to get something back, even from a single decent conversation.

‘Conversation’ is the reason I’ve decided to publish LILIUM in this format. Out in the open, dangly bits flapping in the harsh winds of The Internet. Legacy publishing involves a lot of secrecy and a lot of back and forth between author and agent and agent and editor and editor and publisher, which doesn’t permit authors to have an ongoing conversation with their readers while they’re creating something. It is one of the many problems with traditional publishing, problems which are becoming more and more apparent in this highly connected, BYOD (bring your own device)-to-everything kind of world.

So, welcome to my first, awkward salutation. What is LILIUM going to be, exactly?

At this point in time, it’s this website (which I built: hoo-rah), a partly finished manuscript and a mostly finished short-story, as well as three plans for other books and stories and a concept for the sixth installment. It’s also a work of many paintings and sketches, a substantial collection of notes, and a lot of dreaming. The genre is dystopian science fiction. There’s romance in there, and steep tragedy, and a whole lot of dark and crazy. There’s also Sapheda, the lady who graces the front page of the website. You can ogle her some more here: http://glorificatasura.deviantart.com...

There’s still a lot to finish. I’ve written four novel-length manuscripts now and they each take me about three months. A short story, God Has Heard, will be the first item on the LILIUM menu. More will shortly follow.

So if you’re here at this very early stage of the website, welcome! Updates on progress can be found on the bar to your right, and you’ll get the occasional screenshot or snippet of text in the author blog section. The site won’t be in full swing for another couple of months yet, but if you want to be on the VIP list for the release date of the first story, sign up on the email list over there. No emails will be sent on that list until we’re ready to go.

The News section will also eventually contain articles on the craft of writing. You’ll be notified of those, too.

So feel free to settle in, look around, read about how LILIUM works, and ogle the imagery helping to inspire LILIUM on my Pinterest gallery. You can find me on Twitter and Facebook, too.

You can also go listen to this song, which is what I listen to obsessively while I write the Nephilim and humans of the LILI-verse:

 

Also, AEGIS. Because I am testing my Glossary.