Storytellersunplugged

When it rains, it pours. We’ve all heard that a million times, and though it’s a generalization with no real basis in fact – it’s also true that when things get overwhelming, they only seem to get crazier. This year has been that way for me, so I figured I’d take a day here, write a post and see if I could put it in perspective.

For several years I had very little published…those were recent years. It happened because, as most things do, publishing seems to come in cycles. You don’t necessarily see things that you have sold come out near the time they are sold. During the years in question I had some short stories published, and my last White Wolf novel was published – a High Fantasy book titled “Relic of the Dawn”. I was writing, and even selling, but things just weren’t appearing on shelves, and sales without books did little to help with the fact that the readers I’d worked years to cultivate were forgetting I existed.

So enter 2007. Things picked up a little. I had a collection come out from a small press publisher in the UK – it got some notice – a nomination for the Bram Stoker Award, and it sold out pretty quickly. That was followed by my novel “Ancient Eyes,” also quickly sold out. I spent the summer writing a long novella and I had another short period of nothing…a dry spell, I guess…and then it hit.

I sold another collection. This one will actually have an affordable trade paperback edition which should help my readership and circulation. Then I sold another novel – this one sold not only to a trade hardcover publisher, but to a signed limited publisher as well –simultaneous release planned. Then I sold a novella – the one I’d been working on all summer. It went on sale and sold out in two weeks. It’s a limited edition, yes, but with a trade paperback in the future with decent distribution. Then I sold another novel. Then I sold ANOTHER NOVEL. Well, to be honest, a novel that I’d sold was pulled from one publisher with no ill-will and transferred to one that will actually publish it reasonably soon. Both of these two novels are older books, but both will get decent circulation and very nice treatment from the publisher.

Then I won the Bram Stoker Award for short fiction. Years like this just don’t happen. Not to me, anyway. What I’m doing now is writing desperately to keep the wagon rolling forward. If ever a year was designed to assist an author in leap-frogging out of the small puddle to at least the next loop in the river, this is the one.

It feels very self-indulgent to be writing this post, but on the other hand, this is what we do here. We write about the world of the author. We write about what it’s like to struggle. We write about what thrills us, what depresses us, what angers us. We write about what motivates us to go on, and where the stories are born. This time I’m writing to say that I seem to have done something right. The stars have momentarily aligned in my favor…and it’s difficult to process it.

I’m very grateful for the things that have happened over the past few months. The award is the sort of validation that only those who understand what I do – and why I do it – can understand. My fellow writers found a grouping of my words worthy of note. Publishers found my stories fascinating. Readers are getting excited that new work is forthcoming. It’s hard not to grin, to be honest, and I’m not really the grinning type.

So – for the support of this group, the inspiration of the Gonquin table, the passion of Richard Steinberg, the magic woven words of Thomas “Sully” Sullivan, the worlds and words of Janet Berliner, the long, strong friendship and camaraderie I feel for the group within the group, Mark, Beth, Brian, Wayne – the Pseudocon crowd who have been with me almost every step of my literary career – to Bill Lindblad for reading, selling our work, and caring about our work, to Bear and Sarah, Cody and Alexandra, who I’m still getting to know – to Justine for her deep inspiration … to Rich Dansky, my fellow warrior in the White Wolf wars…to Skipp who makes me smile, and to my old, old friend John Rosenman, who can still beat me at tennis, and who was there when I made my first sales…for all of this, I’m thankful. This is what you all get this month from me. I’m overwhelmed, and I probably have a lot to share, but I needed to get this out. And to all of our readers here at Storytellers Unplugged who validate us every day by reading along and commenting and giving us a sense of purpose and value…we couldn’t do it without all of you.

As I’ve said a thousand times…

Onward!