August Blogs

Wednesday August 23, 2006
Well, everything turned out fine with the class. I was just blown away with how bright the students were, and I had a really great time.

Also today, I managed to revise a little on what I wrote yesterday for my new suspense novel. Word count total is 208 words at just over one page.

Tonight, I spent the evening getting packed because tomorrow I fly out to Los Angeles for the World Science Fiction Convention. I spoke tonight with my good friend Matt Peterson, who I'm sharing a room with. Matt'll be in early in the morning, and I'll be arriving in the early afternoon. I'll be in LA until Sunday.

Should be a lot of fun.

Stacey




Tuesday August 22, 2006
I started my new suspense novel today. It wasn't much, just a page and a half. But it was a start.

Most of the day was spent preparing for the class I'll teach tomorrow at NC State, and I'm feeling a significant amount of anxiety about it. I know I'll do fine, but I always feel anxiety about teaching.

I am much more at home as a writer and salesman and as a campaigner than in front of twenty-two students. Nonetheless, Susan and I need the money that teaching this fall will provide.

One of my goals is to get my writing to the point where it supports us financially. I'm just gonna keep cranking out suspense novel after suspense novel until that goal is realized. I've written far too many novels and put in far too many years to give up, now. I have long-term, more altruistic goals beyond making money, but success as a writer seems the first step in my mind.

You can make this world a better place. You really can.

Always write.

Stacey


Sunday August 20, 2006
I finished my suspense novel today. It clocked in at a word count total of 54,300 words at 276 pages. It is currently titled Death Cabin, but that may change in the months ahead. I'll probably let it rest for a month or two, and then I'll settle in and give it a good edit. After that, I'll begin querying literary agents for it. It is my ninth completed novel.

Also today, I added three more chapters to the Podiobook version of Amber Page and the Legend of the Coral Stone, bringing the chapter total up to 35 that have been uploaded. There are only 44 chapters in the novel, and so I am coming down the home stretch towards completing it.

Additionally today, I sent off the Maria Snyder Interview to an editor who has shown some interest in it at Strange Horizons. This interview has been in the making for almost two years, and so it would be really cool to see it finally in print.

This evening, I went to Kinko's and produced 600 postcards and 100 flyers for Amber Page and the Legend of the Coral Stone, which I plan to hand out and post all over the convention center at LACon later this week.

Also this weekend, I managed to paint my office, mow the yard, water the lawn, cook a dinner last night for dinner guests, and submit photo and bio material to Bouchercon Programming among other things.

It's been a productive weekend.

Susan and I talked for about thirty minutes today regarding what novel I may write next. If I'm really truckin', I may be able to complete another novel this calendar year. That would make, can you believe it, four novels I completed in this calendar year. Keep in mind, two of those were begun last year and the year before last respectively, but still. Four novels that I typed "The End" on in a single calendar year would be a personal record.

I still have a lot to learn about character and plot. You never really stop learning if you just keep a positive attitude and keep writing, but that's the area I really want to improve on in the next year or two. Creating really believable real-world characters and putting them in a plot that you just can't pull yourself away from.

I love what John Grisham did in his break-through novel The Firm. That's where my mind has been the past few days with regards to the kind of characters I would like to see populate my next suspense novel.

Stacey




Friday August 18, 2006
Another busy day today. After getting in from the Huntersville, North Carolina Barnes & Noble last night around midnight, blogging about it, winding down by reading a bit, I was asleep around two o'clock AM.

The alarm clocks went off around eight AM this morning, and by 9:45 I was out the door to NC State. I had a computer classroom orientation until around 12:15 PM. Then, Susan and I went to lunch. I made it back to the house around 2:30 PM, had just enough time to tend to the dogs, answer a few quick emails, and I was out the door to a golf outing with friends at 3:30.

Golfed until about 6:30 and drove home. Susan had a graduate student social to make an appearance at from 6:30-8:15, and so I showered up, answered a few more quick emails, sent a couple of follow-up emails to the writers I met last night at the store, and by the time I was done, Susan was back home from her party.

We had dinner then at 9:00 with two good friends at a Tapas place in Raleigh, and we got home around 11:30. It is now a little after midnight, and I can safely say I had a fun, full day.

This weekend, I really need to pop off another couple chapters for the Podiobook of Amber Page and the Legend of the Coral Stone, and it would be great if I could finish the suspense novel I've been writing this summer.

Stacey



Thursday August 17, 2006
Tonight, I drove over to Huntersville, North Carolina to the Barnes & Noble Birkdale, where a Writers Group was held. The meeting is put together by Meredith Merritt, who read from a recent essay, and the other attending writer was Margaret Miller Perry who read from a wonderful novel-in-progress titled Dream Girls.

I had a great time, and the ladies were really very encouraging and supportive.

Tomorrow, I would like to write a little more on the suspense novel that seems a day or two away from the end. I'm going to have a busy morning, but I should have some time to work in the afternoon.

Take care, good people. And thanks for reading.

Stacey



Tuesday August 15, 2006
This evening, I drove down to Wilmington, North Carolina, where I had the opportunity to meet with a group of writers at the Barnes & Noble at Mayfaire Town Center. Everyone did a reading from two exercises that they wrote for the group, and they were all excellent. Afterwards, the gang let me get a picture.



Pictured above from right to left is Nova, Julie, Robert, Annette, myself, and Dave in the green T-shirt. I had a lot of fun, and it was a great way to spend the evening. If you live in the Wilmington area, I would encourage you to check out this group. They meet the first and third Tuesday of the month at 7:00 PM, and they were all very encouraging and supportive. Newcomers are welcome.

Tomorrow, I have to get back to work on the suspense novel. I've got the time to do it, and the end of the novel is within sight.

Take care, good people. And thanks for reading.

Stacey




Monday August 14, 2006
Well, I managed to write nearly a thousand words today on the Epilogue to the suspense novel I'm currently working on. Hopefully, I'll have the first draft of the novel done by the end of this week.

Also, I added another couple chapters to the Podiobook of Amber Page. I'm told that the novel will go live sometime in the next week or two, and if I keep adding just a chapter a day, I should have the whole thing done within two weeks.

I received another version of the cover of The Colorado Sequence from Mimosa. Susan really likes this version, and she's usually my best judge.

Let me know what you think...

Saturday August 12, 2006
Well, I am back safe and sound from Ohio. Today was really Susan's and my first day in the new house together, where it felt like we have genuinely settled into our lives in North Carolina. School starts up at NC State in the next week and a half, and so we're really having to think about classes for this fall.

That said, I've managed to keep my teaching load light, so that I will be able to write fulltime this fall. I am nearly done with the first draft of the suspense novel that I wrote this summer, and I'm trying to figure out what novel I would like to write next. I've had a lot of ideas this summer, but nothing that just blows me away. Whatever novel I decide to write next, it will be my tenth.

This afternoon, I got another two chapters of Amber Page uploaded at Podiobooks.com, and there's a chance that the book could go live in the next week or two. What that means is that the twenty-eight or so chapters of the audio book would be available for the listening public. For free.

Also, I got the first couple of cover designs for The Colorado Sequence from my good friend, artist Mimosa Mallernee, and they are looking really, really cool. We may very well have a completed cover sometime in the next couple of weeks.

In other news, I found out today that Amazon.com has cashed my check for my October pairing with Lemony Snicket's much hyped 13th Book. If this works out, it means that my novel Amber Page and the Legend of the Coral Stone will be paired with Lemony Snicket on Lemony Snicket's page at Amazon.com in October (the month that it is released worldwide) for sale at a 5% discount if both books are bought together.

I'm really excited about the potential exposure this could gain for my novel.

Stay cool, good people, and thanks for reading.

Stacey



Wednesday August 9, 2006
Well, so, I gave Joe Konrath a sofa to sleep on last night. I didn't sleep very well, but that was because I was wired from the evening, and then the dogs started barking this morning around 7:00 AM and woke me up.

So, I went ahead and got up. Joe was still asleep on the sofa, but I poured him a glass of Apple Juice, made a pot of coffee, and we started the day. We spent about an hour this morning talking shop. He got organized for the day; he's going to try to make it to all the stores in Raleigh, some in Greensboro, and then he's heading over to Charlotte. He said he may try to make it to Columbia, South Carolina by tonight.

I can't tell you how much I learned through this little sortie by Joe. He's just a great guy, and he's got a never-surrender attitude towards self-promotion and selling his books. Should I ever get a major publisher for one of my books, I will probably pattern my first book tour on what he's done with the Rusty Nail 500. I really think it's a cost-effective (if exhausting) way to meet the greatest number of booksellers in the shortest amount of time.

At any rate, he was a good sport this morning, and I made him a light breakfast, got him the address for a local bookstore he wanted to hit first this morning, and then snapped this photo of him standing beside the "Rusty Mobile"...



Take care, good people.

Stacey



Tuesday August 8, 2006
Another bangin' day. I managed to record another two chapters for the podiobook of Amber Page and got them uploaded.

Also, I wrote another thousand words or so to bring the suspense novel up to 52,426 words at 266 pages. The really cool thing is, I think I wrote my ending today. It was very exciting, and I think it still needs an Epilogue and will need revisions, but I think I basically knocked it out today. I'm really happy with the way things came together at the ending.

Then, the real fun of the day came this evening when I met a couple of writer friends at a local place here in Raleigh. JA Konrath who is on his Rusty Nail 500 Book Tour came to town, and a group of us decided to meet him at the Village Draft House.

Pictured here, left to right, is JD Rhoades, JA Konrath, Alex Sokoloff, David Terrenoire, and myself...



I must have quizzed JA about 500 things regarding the publishing business, and even though he was exhausted, he answered all of my questions thoughtfully and honestly. The man is a genius. I also got some really good insights from David, Dusty, and Alex. It was just a lot of fun, and this was a great group of writers to spend time with.

Tomorrow, I fly to Ohio to meet Susan and spend a couple days at her summer camp. So, I will probably be without a computer for several days.

Take care, folks. And thanks for reading.

Stacey


Monday August 7, 2006
I had a very full day today. On the writing front, I managed to write almost another thousand words on the suspense novel, bringing the word count total up to 51,351 words at 261 pages.

I also added two new chapters to the podiobook version of Amber Page. This is really, really cool because it's been a long while since I added anything to it, and the guys were very receptive to me starting up again. Now that I'm situated in Raleigh, I should be able to start popping off the final few chapters and get this thing completed.

If I've learned one thing from my experience this past year in doing the audio book for Amber Page, it's that I should start the project much earlier. It just takes a long time to read aloud 200-400 pages (like months) and I think it would probably be better to have the print edition of a book available at roughly the same time the audio book is available.

That said, if I'm going to do a podiobook for The Colorado Sequence, I'm gonna have to get moving to have it available by November. It may actually be unrealistic to think I could have a whole audiobook version of the thing done by then. I'll just have to see what I can do.

In addition to all that, I put together a dinner for a couple of writers tomorrow night. JD Rhoades, Alex Sokoloff, David Terrenoire, JA Konrath, and myself are getting together for dinner in Raleigh at the Village Draft House at eight o'clock. If you're in town and want to come, just drop on by. We'd love to have you.

Also, the article in the Chapel Hill News hit newstands yesterday and while I didn't get a mention in the article itself, I did show up in one of the pictures. I'm the guy in the brown shirt all the way on the left with both hands on his knees...



We look like a bunch of guys in AA.

Stacey


Sunday August 6, 2006
I had the best day writing-wise that I've had in a while. I managed to write 1400 words, and I brought the total word count for the new suspense novel to 50,419 at 255 pages. That gets me over the 50,000-word mark, which is a huge step toward completing a novel.

I really struggled all day long to find the motivation to write. I think I'm afraid of doing a bad job with the ending, and I've gotten so many thoughtful rejection letters for Claws the last few weeks that it makes me really want to meet all demands with this new novel. I just don't want to have a crappy ending. The ending is really the most important thing.

All that said, I really didn't get down to writing today until late, around 5 o'clock. But then I wrote pretty steadily through the night. It's now 11:30 PM, and I need to cook me up some dinner and get ready to go to sleep.

Thanks for all your prayers and support.

Stacey



Thursday August 3, 2006
I really have got to figure out a way to add more hours to the normal twenty-four that I seem to be stuck with.

Today started at 8:30 AM after about six hours of sleep. The fellows who were finishing up the painting in the kitchen came around 8:45, and by 10:00, I was out the door and headed to a local U-Haul to pick up a trailer.

Once I got the trailer, I drove down to Smithfield to pick up some furniture I bought yesterday. I stopped off at Smithfield's Bar-B-Q in Clayton for lunch around 11:45, and I got the furniture back to the house around 1:00 PM.

Then, I unloaded it, started unpacking, hanging more pictures on walls, etc. This took up a huge chunk of the afternoon, and I returned the U-Haul trailer around 5:00 PM.

Sometime in the afternoon, I called JA Konrath because I'm trying to put together a dinner for him and some local authors when he's in town next Tuesday. It sounded like he loved the idea, but he's not sure if he's going to make it Tuesday or Wednesday. If he's going to be here Wednesday, the plan is shot to hell because I'm flying up to Ohio that day and wouldn't be able to have dinner in Raleigh.

I also straightened out a couple of directory things at NC State regarding my new office space.

Then, around 5:45 PM, I rushed to get organized in order to drive over to Pittsboro, North Carolina where they had an Open Mic Night at McIntyre's Bookstore. I made it there right as they were getting ready to start at 7:00 PM.

The turn-out was good; there were about ten people at one point. But what really threw me was there was a reporter there from the Chapel Hill News (as well as a photographer) and so I felt like "Wow, what have I gotten myself in to?" The photographer took photos of us during the reading, and the reporter asked a few questions afterwards.

The article should be in Sunday's paper.

It's 12:35 AM (and so it's actually already Friday), and I've got to be up early tomorrow to drive over to Greenville to have lunch with an old friend, who happens to be the cover artist for The Kiribati Test. We're planning to discuss the possibility of her doing the cover for The Colorado Sequence.

Sleepy-sleep time. Thanks for reading, folks.

Stacey



Tuesday August 1, 2006
Today was a full day.

I started this morning around 8:30 answering emails and getting a couple of manuscripts ready to send out to literary agents who requested work from me.

Then, I met a writer friend Maria Snyder for lunch. After lunch, we went to downtown Raleigh and walked around the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science and I asked her about three hundred questions about her first three published novels, the second of which will be out from LUNA this October. Maria was very patient with me and answered all kinds of questions about print runs, units sold, publicity tours, royalties, working with her editor, finding the right literary agent, etc.

I hope to publish all of this in an interview that is forthcoming.

After that, I had just enough time to come home, answer emails, phone calls, finish printing up manuscripts for literary agents, and then I was out the door for a new Writers Group that I attended at a Barnes & Noble out towards Durham.

After that, I had dinner around 9:30 PM, went grocery shopping, and then finally made it home for the day around 10:30. Fed the dogs, gave them their medicine, and took care of some basic things around the house, and POW! it's after midnight before I know it.

Time to get some sleep.

I'm going to do an Open Mic Night Thursday at a bookstore over in Pittsboro.

Tomorrow is my day to write on the suspense novel.

Stacey

P.S. I should have a new photo of the month up for August sometime in the next few days.



Monday July 31, 2006
It's actually a few minutes past midnight, so it's technically August 1, but what the hell.

I'm alive and well. Did a little writing on the suspense novel yesterday, none today. I'm having lunch tomorrow with a writer friend who is in town Maria Snyder. Go buy her book Poison Study. It's excellent.

I've got a new Writers Group that I'm going to try to make it to tomorrow night, and I've got two more manuscripts I need to mail out to literary agents, so I'm going to be pretty busy tomorrow.

The kitchen remodeling is coming along nicely. They laid the granite countertops today. Tomorrow morning early (I need to go to bed), we should have new cabinets arriving and installed.

Sleep now.

Stacey