Updates, updates, updates …
For those of you who might be curious about what I’m up to lately (or what my schedule looks like for the next year or so), I thought I’d give a sneak peek at my current/future projects. So here goes …
#1 – I’m happy to report that the Goodreads giveaway for my latest novel–Emmaline Waters, This Is Your Life–was a success, with 1027 people in the US and the UK signing up to win a paperback copy of the book, surpassing my totally meaningless and completely arbitrary goal of 1000. :) The 2 signed copies went to Buckinghamshire, Great Britain and Murfreesboro, TN. Congrats to the winners!
#2 – Since my latest book is now launched, I’m free to revisit a screenplay I wrote in 2010 or 2011 (I forget which) that earned 2 (out of 2) positive reads in the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition in 2012 . After putting the script away for a year or two, I’ve found some areas for improvement, so I’ll be tackling a revision in the next month to ready the script for its journey. Here’s the logline:
A young Arkansas farmer discovers he’s been reincarnated and embarks upon a quest to find his lost love, a beautiful peasant girl who died beside him in 1937 at Nanking, China.
#3 – I have an idea for a new novel (or maybe script, though I’ll probably write the book first) that is like nothing I’ve ever written before. I have a feeling that this project could be “the one,” if I take the time–and put in the hard work–to get it exactly right. The working title is “White Sheep” and even though I haven’t written a word of the book, I’ve been crafting a rough blurb I don’t mind sharing:
Adam Blood, the white sheep in a family full of thugs, addicts, and grifters, is set to join the Marines and “go straight” when he encounters Celeste, a beguiling but troubled young woman on a mission to solve a haunting mystery from her past before she self-destructs.
Celeste Findley, the privileged only daughter of two federal court judges, is struggling to separate fact from fiction, years of revolving-door mental institutionalization—and an ever-changing cocktail of psychotropic drugs—having fractured her already scarred psyche. If her memories are true, five-year-old Celeste witnessed a disturbing crime, the repercussions of which could reverberate from a sleepy California resort town to the backwoods of Maine. If her memories are false, something even more unsettling is at work: Celeste has lost her mind.
In the summer of 1988, Adam and Celeste embark upon a cross-country quest for the truth that casts them as petty criminals and places them in the orbit of a harmless-seeming—but dangerous—fellow traveler called Moonie. When Moonie shows his true colors, Adam must draw on the brutal lessons of his childhood to keep Celeste safe. But his actions have a price, and soon a tense showdown with the law puts Adam’s survival—and Celeste’s sanity—in the crosshairs.
#4 – Another project I’ve been working on (though I haven’t touched it since August of 2013) is a dystopian thriller tentatively called “Poison Marrow.” I like the 70 pages I’ve written so far, but I hit a dead end and ran out of ideas. I didn’t want to ruin the beginning by taking the book in the wrong direction, so I put it aside. I’d like to get that finished this year, if possible. Maybe I’ll post some excerpts here in a few months and pick your brains for ideas …
#5 – Oh, and if I didn’t mention it before, I’d like to write a sequel (I’ve already got some funny ideas) to the book I just released. Most of my luck (saleswise) in the indie publishing world has come from (1) divine intervention or (2) publishing a second book in a series. Only one of these avenues is within my control.
That’s it for now, I guess. Wish me luck. And thanks for stopping by.
