The September Photo of the Month is one of my favorites of all time. That's New York Times bestselling author James Patterson and me. Jim was the recipient of the Grandmaster Award at Thrillerfest this year, and this photo was taken on the elevator while riding down to the awards banquet. (I think we were staying on the same floor at the hotel.) Can you tell I was excited?

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Hey folks,

It's been a great week. We did an event at Cameron Village Public Library Thursday evening that drew about 35 writers. Our panelists were sci-fi fantasy author James Maxey and Baen Publishing contributing editor Gray Rhinehart. The discussion really focused on the nitty-gritty details of how a publisher like Baen works in terms of acquiring manuscripts, setting pub dates, publicizing and marketing its books, and editing manuscripts to be published.

Then, on Friday, we filmed a new interview at the TV studio for The Artist's Craft to air on Raleigh Television Network Channel 10 later this fall. Marnie Cooper-Priest and Michael Graziano were directing, and this interview was with Cynthia Barnett, executive director for the 1500-member strong NC Writers' Network.

Today, I'm driving down to Wilmington, North Carolina to moderate a panel discussion with three other authors titled "How to Write a Book: From Idea to Completed Manuscript" at Pomegranate Bookstore for the Wilmington Write to Publish Group.

Stacey

Friday September 21, 2007
Busy, busy, busy... well we filmed another interview today and then I did an event this evening with the authors at Cameron Village Public Library in Raleigh.

The interview went very well, and I should have it available online within a couple days. I'll post it here when it's done.

Tonight's event was well attended, and I had a lot of fun.

Stacey

Saturday September 15, 2007
I've got a new interview online. This one is with author Christopher Irving. Enjoy...

Thursday September 13, 2007
Isn't this a great picture? It's just amazing to me that I have a son. Man, we are truly blessed...

Friday September 7, 2007
My life is busier now than it has ever been.

Last night, I had an event at a Borders Bookstore. We drew a crowd of about 30 people, and I managed to sell about seven or eight books and as many DVDs.

Today, I had an author-interview at the TV studio. It was an excellent interview, but it occupied my day from 8:00 AM until around 7:00 PM, when I finally had to pull myself away from post-production editing to have some dinner. I still have work that I could be doing on it right now (the audio isn't where I'd like it to be), but I'm going to give it a rest for the night.

Last weekend, I had an event on Thursday evening, Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon. Add in teaching on Monday and Wednesday, and there just ain't a lot of spare time.

Also, I'm finishing up my tenth novel, and I've begun editing my next major DVD project. I hope to have the novel done within the next couple of weeks, and the DVD done within 4-6 weeks.

Additionally, I'm booking events for the rest of the fall, and may line up 6-12 bookstore events for the next two to three months. I would like to get on a regular circuit throughout the Southeast doing events once per month in cities like Charlotte, Washington DC, Virginia Beach, Wilmington, and of course, Raleigh. I managed to do this over the summer, but things are busier now and it makes regular touring a bit more challenging.

At any rate, I guess the goal is to just stick with the show this fall, keep writing, finish the novel, finish the new DVD project, tour as much as I can, schedule as many events as I possibly can keep up with, and enjoy it.

Should be a fun couple of months!

Stacey

P.S. I've uploaded the newest interview to YouTube in three parts...

August 2007 Blogs

The August Photo of the Month comes from last month's trip to Thrillerfest in New York. Like a lot of writer's conventions, it was tough, fun, exhilarating, and exhausting (depending on the time of day, amount of coffee, and impression I felt I'd just made on someone else), but this photo with me and bestselling suspense novelist Lee Child was at a moment when I felt very good, in balance, and was just having fun. Plus, Lee's a nice guy and puts everybody at ease around him.

Saturday September 1, 2007
Well, it's been a whirl-wind couple of days. On Thursday evening, I moderated a panel discussion at Cameron Village Public Library with authors Alexandra Sokoloff, J.D. Rhoades, and Vicki Hendricks. I managed to film the 90-minute discussion with three cameras and two studio mics, and was able to get the audience of 75 people to sign release forms so that I can use the footage freely.

My plan is to make a DVD out of this, but it'll take a couple of months to edit it all together. Nonetheless, when it's done it's going to look very good and sound very good, and it's my first truly "talk show" teleproduction with mics for the audience and the panelists. I'm really stoked about the whole thing.

Speaking of DVDs, my first "How to Publish a Book, How to Get a Literary Agent" DVD became available on Amazon.com in the past few days. I've already managed to sell one copy, and I haven't even publicized it anywhere yet.

Yesterday, I hosted Episode 3 of The Artist's Craft. Our in-studio guests were Vicki Hendricks and J.D. Rhoades, and I think it was our best interview yet in the series. I'll post the YouTube version here in a few days.

For now, though, here's Part 3 of the Alexandra Sokoloff interview. Enjoy...

Saturday August 25, 2007
Got a couple things to blog about. First up, I've launched a new website www.howtopublishabook.org as an online hub for writers. I'm planning on uploading author interviews and having guest bloggers. It's largely an experiment to see how search-engine optimization affects website traffic.

Here is Part 2 of the Alexandra Sokoloff interview...

Friday August 17, 2007
Got a new trailer for the DVD project I've been working on...

Tuesday August 14, 2007
Life is good. Some days I'm just amazed at how lucky I am to have the life that I have. I've got a few pictures from the day.

Got things started early by writing on the deck this morning (accompanied by Sam)...

I managed to really stay with it despite a difficult section of the novel. Later this afternoon, Susan came home and fed Sam some green beans...

Afterwards, we all put on our bathing suits and went swimming...

.

Right now, I'm at the kitchen table typing up my blog while Susan puts our son to bed (I can hear the mobile in his room). We've got chicken in the crock pot that we'll eat as soon as I publish this to my website.

Enjoy life, people. And give thanks. That's the secret to it all.

Stacey

Friday August 10, 2007
It's Photo Friday. Here's a black-and-white of my newest writing inspiration, my son Sam...

Thursday August 9, 2007
It's been a busy week. I've been working on the Roman Phoenix novel, and I'm near the 65,000-word mark at roughly 340 pages. I'd like to bring it in around 400 pages and about 80,000 words.

The title for the novel has changed a number of times in the past year, but I'm currently leaning toward Roman's Prayer. I would really like to have the first draft done by the time classes start in a couple of weeks at NC State.

This fall I'm kind of cooling things off on the speaking engagement front. I currently only have a few things lined up in the next couple of months and have decided instead to focus my energies on writing, on the TV show, and on teaching at State.

I have a DVD project that I'm working on that may change this, though. I may do a number of bookstore events to promote the DVD, depending on how I feel about the finished product.

At any rate, that's a little bit from here in Raleigh where the temperature is supposed to hit a record-breaking 103 degrees tomorrow (with a heat index around 110).

That's hot.

Stacey

Monday July 30, 2007
Susan took this photo today shortly after Sam ate his first cracker...

Saturday July 28, 2007
I've got a new interview online. This was shot yesterday at the RTN studio in downtown Raleigh. Our guest was Alexandra Sokoloff.

Friday July 27, 2007
Had a great photo arrive in my email inbox this evening from my good friend P.G. Holyfield, author of Murder at Avedon Hill. This is from my event at the Borders in Charlotte on Wednesday...