A NEW BOOK!

I finally wrote a new book.

I'm not sure why it took me so long to write anything new. It's been a few years since I finished the Forts Trilogy. Work has been busy. I guess that's part of it. There's also my laziness. That probably had something to do with it too.

I spend my days as a graphic designer. I also have the luxury of working from home. I commute about fifteen feet, work in my underwear, and generally don't shower until noon. I do a lot of projects for social media companies, and small print houses. Occasionally I find myself with an illustration job. I also do most of the show branding for Koldcast.tv, and a bunch of other stuff I'm too bored to name. On top of my regular jobs, a while back I somehow fell into doing book covers for independent publishers and small publishing houses. I've done a lot of book covers.

Holy crap have I done a lot of book covers.

Basically, I'm trying to say it's been a busy year.

Busy isn't much of an excuse though. I like writing. I should have found the time to do it.

Also, I sit at a computer all day long. It can be tough to convince myself, and my wife, that I need to sit at it even longer.

It takes me a while to formulate an idea. I don't plot. When I come up with something I really like, I don't even write it down. If I can't remember it, it probably wasn't very good. That's what I tell myself. It's dumb. I know it's dumb. I like to pretend it's smart, but I secretly know it's dumb.

It's also an excuse to be lazy. 

I had the basic idea for the new book about two years ago, a few big moments, specific lines of dialogue. I knew how I wanted the story to begin and I knew where I wanted it to end. When it seemed too big an idea for one book I decided to break it into three. Then I sat on it for a year.

Then I sat on it for another year.

Remember the whole laziness thing?

At no point during my sitting did I ever forget about the book. I thought about it all the time. When I was taking my noonish shower, I'd play out certain scenes in my head, imagine them with some snazzy background music. When I was snacking on bag after bag of delicious, fattening potato chips, I was working stuff out. When I went for my nightly run to burn off those potato chip calories, I cleaned up bits of dialogue in my brain. When I was naked with  the wife I was thinking about it too.

That last bit stays between you and me, got it?

Somehow, despite being too lazy to take a single note, I remembered everything. The big moments that popped into my head two years ago are the same big moments that made it into the book. The same characters get smacked around and the same characters die. Some of the stuff in-between has been tweaked, but it probably wasn't good enough to remember anyway. 

I like the new book. It took a while to get from my brain to the page, but it was mostly worth the wait. It's a solid read, heavy, unforgiving, violent, maybe a little gross. I'm sure a few people will complain that it's a bit short, but I'm oaky with that. A lot happens. It feels like the first chapter in something bigger, because it is. There are zombies, and mutants, and cannibals, and guns, and monsters, and explosions. Despite that very awesome nonsense, I think it all has a point. The characters aren't just fodder for the next explosion.

Rest assured, they do blow up.

When they blow up, they blow up for a reason.

It's classy like that.

Overall, the book says what I wanted it to say. It's not going to sell a heck of a lot of copies. It's not the kind of book the masses are buying these days. No one falls in love. There's nothing romantic about it. There's no kinky sex and there's no strange, kinky-romantic sex. Plus I'm lazy about promotion. The chances of me knuckling down and promoting the hell out of it are slim. If a few people buy the book, awesome. If a few people like it, double-awesome. It really doesn't matter. I didn't write it because I thought it would sell and I'd be able to quit my day job. I like my day job. I work in my underwear. What's not to like?

I wrote the story because actually writing it was the only way I'd stop thinking about it.

Now I just need to finish it.

~Steven



If you feel like snagging a copy for you Kindle, click HERE

Paperback copies, click HERE

Want to learn a little more about the series, click HERE

THE STATE OF FORTS ADDRESS

The Forts series has found a new home!

More than likely you’re silently saying to yourself, “Oh that’s too bad. It must not have sold well. That poor, poor man.”

Let me assure you, that’s not the case – far from it in fact. The choice to continue the series with someone else was actually mine and mine alone. I never signed a contract for the series as a whole and after my experience with the first book there was no way that was going to happen. It wouldn’t have been the right choice.

I don’t see any reason to go into the details of the “breakup” (for now), but I will say that Forts is moving to greener, less frustrating, and far more professional pastures.

So what does this all mean to you?

Well, it means that the copy of “Fathers and Sons” you no doubt have sitting in a place of prominence on your bookshelf – or next to the crapper, either way. That copy of Forts will very soon be an out of print collectors edition!

That’s right, I said collectors edition and I meant it!

Will you be able to sell it on ebay to pay the rent? Eh, I wouldn’t count on that.

Will you be able to trade it for a pack of gum and maybe a Butterfinger bar? Yep, I think you might be able to pull that off.

Still, your copy is special now. It’s unique. If you sent it to me to get autographed it’s even more unique. You own it, some other people own it, but no one else is ever going to own it – ever. That’s pretty cool, no?

For those of you that haven’t got your hands on a copy yet, a second edition print version of the book will be arriving with a brand new cover before you know it. (Probably within the next few months in fact.) Along with the print version, the book will FINALLY make its way to e-readers everywhere! (This is long overdue.)

Oh, all those editing flubs the original publisher left in – you know, the ones that caused the sentence “This could have been a fantastic book if it had a good editor” to appear in nearly every review. Thankfully those are going to be fixed up for the second edition.

For those of you waiting patiently for “Liars and Thieves,” right around the time the second edition arrives book two is going to hit the shelves! It’s a heck of a lot later than was originally planned, but I’m hoping it’ll be worth the wait.

The nonsense of the past is in the past and hopefully that’s where it’s going to stay. Writing has officially picked up again on the final book in the series and I’m probably only 40,000 words or so from finishing it up.

Forts has a new home, and this is a good thing.

Scratch that and revise: Forts has a new home, and it’s a giggity-great thing.

It’s better than a steaming hot pizza and a tub of ice cream served to you by Rosario Dawson in a French maid’s outfit.

Okay, maybe it’s not that good…

It’s still pretty fantastic though.

Steven