Well, the distractions of summer have come and gone, so time for an update from yours truly as we barrel headfirst into fall. In DFW, that means football, the Texas State Fair (corndogs!), lingering summer temps (actually has been a pleasant September so far), and kids back in school.

Travel is one of humanity’s great pleasures. My family took three trips this summer: a week in New York City, fifteen days all over Alaska, and five days at the Atlantis resort in The Bahamas. Wonderful experiences, all. The photo above is from the approach to South Sawyer glacier, about a 2-hour boat ride north of Juneau. That scene was totally epic, frigid, and one of the pinnacles of summer for me. I am a cold weather critter.

This summer wasn’t a particularly productive one for me as far as writing goes. I got to experience my first bout of COVID-19, which was relatively mild, but also exactly zero fun for a few days. My kiddo’s been busy with camps from one end of Dallas to the other. And we tend to be last-minute planners on trips, so much of my limited writing time at night got redirected to trip planning/booking. Between trips was recovery, laundry, unpacking, and more packing, and driving my kiddo all over town to playdates or managing sleepovers. I made some headway with Steelwing 2 (title forthcoming!), but progressed far more once school started. I watched from afar as Dangers to Society languished on Amazon’s Kindle Vella platform with few readers. Once the 30-day the exclusivity period with Vella had lapsed (after the final episode was released), I could get going on the physical copies of D2S, so here’s that announcement:

Dangers to Society on sale October 1st, 2024!!

Here’s my store link if you’d like to preorder a signed copy directly from me. The eBook is available for preorder now on Amazon. On (or around) October 1st, the title will be available to purchase in paperback and hardcover

One of the earlier pieces of advice aspiring authors will receive is to write the story they want to read. Dangers to Society is that story for me. I greatly enjoy Steelwing, the forthcoming sequel, and the other stories I’m working on. But D2S strikes a special chord, because it is a whole bunch of things at once: fun, silly, stupid, and smart. It possesses a modicum of social commentary, but doesn’t take the message that seriously. It inspires the imagination. It makes you say – I know that place (if you’ve been to Dallas at least). It plays out on the movie screen in your mind. I have a wonderful, engaging premise to follow for the follow-up, but probably won’t open that can of worms until at least Steelwing 3 is wrapped up. Hopefully good sales will make that a harder decision – so help a brother out!

When you’re an indie author and going on your own steam, there is a lot to do. Polish the heck out of the manuscript. Have it edited. Do interior design (not terribly hard, just time consuming), cover design (or artist searching/hiring), cover templates for Amazon and Ingram Spark, project setup at both (neither of which are similar or smooth processes). The cover templates are annoyingly different and exact, and any slight deviation from their expectations can mean days of delays. There are reasons publishers take years to publish a book after they acquire it from an author.

I totally dig the cover. So orange.

And then there’s all the marketing. So much promoting, social media, the research between those, it can make your head spin. You can do as little as zero, but expect commensurate results with your marketing efforts. I’ve been patient after launching Steelwing to rely on word of mouth and do very limited social media advertising, but will work a little harder on marketing with each title released. Another recent piece of advice I’ve received is that the best advertising of your back catalogue is your newest book, so I’ve taken that to heart and attempted to keep my funnel of new projects ahead of stagnation. I expect sales of Steelwing to tick upward once Steelwing 2 comes out, and both will rise further when the third book is released in 2025. Marketing remains a challenge to me, but it’s something I’m aware I need to work on and will hit that subject harder in the months to come. Maybe I’ll even get my awkward self on TikTok (gulp).

So, with all of these “other” things to do during my limited writing time, it’s hard to keep putting out fresh word count consistently. I started writing in earnest mid 2017, and I am definitely feeling the years that have lapsed since then. Some lingering injuries (back), some new ones (tailbone), some genetic susceptibilities (neck), and a gripful of new medications have all put downward pressure on my late-night stamina. Back when I was writing the first draft Dangers to Society in 2019 and 2020, I could stay up until 2-3AM when the words were flying. Now, midnight is usually my limit. But I keep at it. My interest in writing and my stories remains keen, so I know I’m spending what free time I have doing something I love.

Building Worlds is not only the name of my blog, but my publishing company, with which I am to help authors like me get their books out into the world. At the moment it’s just my own books, but I hope to use the work I’ve done on my own as an example for what can be done with some passion and just a little bit of care and artistic gravitas. If you happen to be coming to DFWCon this year, look for me and let’s strike up a conversation!

That’s all for now. Keep writing (when you can)!