MYTHIC Magazine Arrives

Check this out folks. My magazine is now available. This is the first of I hope many issues of MYTHIC: A Quarterly Science Fiction & Fantasy Magazine. Yours truly is the editor of this new publication and I also happen to have an original story inside as well.

The project is being published by Founders House Publishing, my company. If you're interested in what we're doing over at MYTHIC go over and take a look. 

For those interested in buying a copy, you can buy one from MYTHIC direct by visiting the ISSUES page on the website or you can buy it from Amazon and other booksellers as the issue continues to go live and spread across the web. 

If you'd like to buy a one-year subscription (4 Issues) to MYTHIC, you can do this at www.mythicmag.com as well. Visit the SUBSCRIBE page.

NaNoWriMo 2016

Yep. I've decided to carve out the time to do National Novel Writing Month this year. Am I nuts? Probably. But, I just can't let another month pass without going back to writing. Now this will be a balancing act. I have lots to do as a publisher including launching MYTHIC, my sci-fi/fantasy magazine.

This all is happening with a rather topsy-turvy context as far as my personal life is concerned, but well, who doesn't have to work in some pretty crazy circumstances sometimes. I can't make that an excuse to throw the towel in.

So, I'm back and I'm looking forward to starting and finishing a novel in 30 days in November. Good luck to one and all who are joining in this crazy writing challenge.

Update Of Sorts

It's been over a month. I haven't updated much on the goings-on here in my little corner of the universe. It's been a busy time and a time for continued reflection on what happens next. I've been looking at what it is that I've been doing as a writer and what I would like to do. There are differences. In some cases, big differences.

What is at issue is more than writing. It is what else in my life takes up the limited time each of us has day by days. The matter is deciding what to prioritize. That can be tough when there are so many possibilities. I've grown busier and honestly my priorities have been changing. I've been looking harder at what I'm doing and what sort of projects I'd like to do and find more options out there than I ordinarily let myself see. 

I'm a publisher. That's taking more or a front seat and I'm glad for it. But, there are other things too. I've always been something of a creative sort and that hasn't been limited to writing. Making art is a much broader description. I know this but I haven't lived this enough. So that's changing. I'll been informing on more than just writing.

As a writer, I've been very narrow on what sort of work I've been doing. Naturally, some would say that it makes sense to focus on a particular style of writing or a genre. There is some merit to that thinking, but it isn't always right. So, I'm moving past it, and becoming more experimental. Fantasy and science fiction are still important to me as modes of expression, but I want to see what else there is. I want to come more in line with where my tastes have grown.

I'll be trying to update on the goings-on as they go on and inform the interested on works completed.

So there it is.

Hello 2016!

So it's a newly-minted year so what am I doing right now? 

Well, I've been writing. Still working on the book I started back during NaNoWriMo 2015. I'm not trying to push so hard to get it to fit any sort of expectations that I might dream up. I'm just trying to have fun and tell a good story. No more, no less. 

I'm still considering the challenges idea. For example, I've thought about taking up a writing streak. What is this? Well, it's simple enough. You just write everyday without missing for as long as you can. New words of fiction each and every day of this year. I could add further goals like word count or project count goals, but I haven't yet. My minimum word count I like to hit is 1,000 words or four pages. Four pages a day for the duration of 2016 would get me 366,000 words. Now what form all of these words would take is up for debate. I have no idea right now. Some of them, though, will be used on my current novel. 

It seems that when I ever I write about word counts, I think in terms of fiction rather than nonfiction, so that doesn't even get mention when I talk about such totals. I might change that if I end up writing more nonfiction during the course of the year. I like the openness of a new year. There are always circumstances that affect what actually gets done, but at this early stage, it is still important to dream and imagine the possibilities. 

I do like the idea of this being the "Year of the Writer." It sounds cool anyway. I'll keep all of you posted.

The End of The Year

Can't really believe its the end of 2015 but oh well, it is. I can say I've become more introspective here in the last couple of days of the year, but the truth is I'm always introspective. I live a lot of the time inside my head. Your typical introvert. Anyways, no need to share the latest bit of self-psychoanalysis. I'm I have things to look back on in 2015.

I've accomplished good things as a writer (and publisher) and a year end review or wrap-up felt in order. This post gives me a chance to look over it all and list a few things. Plus, I'll probably look ahead into 2016 as well. There are things I want to accomplish with the new year. Everybody feels that way when they look back on the shape of the previous twelve months. That's what all this resolution stuff is all about. Personally, I'm not great at setting and keeping resolutions. So I won't go that far. The best thing is to have a few ideas and maybe set some broader challenges.

Anyways, here it goes, my look back at 2015.

Things Published in 2015

I must say I did published or reissued a number of books and stories. I'm going to begin by mentioning the books. I actually brought out five new paperback books, two of them newly published, two paperback editions for novels published only as ebooks originally, and my first published nonfiction book (and my company's second published title).

That's been the focus when I wanted working on other projects strictly for other writers via the publishing company. I've wanted to increase the number of books I can get out of my own work. It's been important to me to maintain this balance. I'm getting busier as a publisher so the balance is harder to meet, but I'm not about to give up. I was a writer before all of this and I mean to stay one for the long haul. I maintain it is one of my best strengths as a publisher. Anyway, here are the books:

Heaven's Point Guard: The Kirk Gentrup Story. I put out a new 2015 paperback edition of the 2010 book back in late February. It had been five years and the hardback had officially gone out of print though it remains under limited availability. The book was co-written with Ken "Cruiser" Gentrup and shared the story of his son Kirk, his life and his tragic death. It was an inspiration piece that I impacted the community where I grew up. 2015 marked the twentieth anniversary of Kirk's death. This book led to others and helped me grow as a writer overall. It also helped to launch Founders House Publishing. I'm grateful for the opportunity that this deeply personal project afforded me and I still hope others learn about Kirk's story and share it with others.

A Kingdom of Shadows. Three years after I published the ebook edition of my second completed fantasy novel, I finally got around to publishing a paperback edition. The novel was another important growing experience for me. In a way, it helped me to get beyond the previous novel writing experience with my first book, Cries of The Faithless. That work took me the better part of a decade to complete simply because I suffered from blocks, lack of confidence, the wrong mindset, and just bad advice. Though it worked out in the end, I kept asking myself if I could complete another novel. did I have it in me? I started A Kingdom of Shadows in mid-2012 and actually completed the book in a staggering 44 days. It's a new personal record. I was so happy. (Now, time to get busy with the sequel!)

Stormborn's Debt. My fourth novel, a much slimmer book, was written sometime in late 2013 or early 2014 and I sat on it for months. It introduced a new character, Brandin Stormborn, and I knew after several title changes that this book was just the first of many tales about this particular character. I had my first episodic series character. I published it around the same time as the paperback of A Kingdom of Shadows. It was the first of two totally new books released for the year. (I'm currently working on the second book, Stormborn's Fate, right now. I hope to have it released sometime in early 2016.)

Killer of Dragons. Here's my fifth novel - and really you could probably call it a novella. It's very short. I wrote it around the same time as Stormborn's Debt and shared its fate to wait until I got around to publishing it in August of 2015. It is a self-contained work and while it's possible I might write more about the character that appears in its pages, odds are that I won't. It was a fun little 'dragonslayer' tale. I had wanted to write one and I did. It was a fun experience.

The Darkness of The Deep. This was my third novel though it appeared as an ebook in 2014. Like the other two just mentioned, there was a long gap between the actual writing and publication. Like A Kingdom of Shadows, it appears to be a first book in a series. I've not written a word of it and have only a couple of ideas about what a second book might contain. This book was me delving into my love for seafaring adventures and it made me realize I would probably be exploring this in many more books. (Hence, the Stormborn series.) The paperback edition was published in September of 2015.

Okay now I'll mention the short stories. I started the year but publishing ebook single editions of ten of my short stories. You can find those all on various platforms for various devices.

The list of stories included the following:

1. Death to the Messenger (1/30)
2. The Beast of Mern (1/30)
3. Winds of Fate (1/31)
4. The Traitor (1/31)
5. A Reckoning (2/22)
6. The Prophet's Return (2/22)
7. The Risen Queen (2/22)
8. The Ruling (4/3)
9. Oathsworn (4/3)
10. Midwinter Light (4/3)

So, yeah, that was good. I still have others that haven't been published yet, some that I'd written or revised from early material during the course of the year.

It's a good body of work but now I'm ready to up my game. I want to see how many new books I can finish and ready for publication in 2016. I consider it one of my unofficial challenges in the new year. Other than the second Stormborn book there are other things in the works. So stay tuned for all of that. I might be doing more updates as things develop.