UPDATE!
We’re climbing the charts on Amazon! As of 13:41 on November 27, 2018, we are at #3 on Amazon’s Hot New Releases list for Steampunk, #22 in Kindle Science Fiction Anthologies & Short Stories, #24 in Science Fiction Steampunk (for all books), and #60 in Kindle Steampunk. Not bad!
Yeah, not really a depiction of Thanksgiving in “Star Trek”, but it’s a big feast!This is the one time in the year where we, as a country, formally take time to focus on the things we’re thankful for. Sometimes, it might seem that you have nothing to be thankful for, but if you take the time to reflect, seriously reflect, you will be surprised at just how many blessings you have in your life.
I have much to be thankful for this year.
I finally finished up my degree. It took a while, but I’m thankful to have that done and behind me.
I have two amazing children and an even more amazing wife. My life has changed significantly since I got married (more than two decades ago!) and since our two bundles of joy finally decided it was time to make an appearance. Despite moments of frustration and helplessness that pepper life with children, I have experienced more joy since they came along than I ever thought possible.
I live in relative peace and comfort, thanks to the efforts of those who choose to serve to protect our freedoms, and those whose scientific minds are immeasurably greater than mine.
I sold my first story, and it will be published this year, too! Next week!
I work with some amazing people.
I have many friends and family who support me in my eccentricities and share my interests.
I have a loving Father in Heaven who has provided a way for me to return to live with him someday.
I live in an amazingly beautiful world, filled with more wonders than I could possibly see or experience in my lifetime.
I live in a country that affords me the freedom to make my own choices regarding my life.
I am truly blessed in innumerable ways, far more than I probably realize, and I am thankful for all of them.
I hope all of you take a few moments (or longer) to seriously consider all of the ways you are blessed. Focusing on the positive things in your life can be life-changing. It has been, for me.
May all of you have a very happy Thanksgiving, however you celebrate it, and regardless of with whom you celebrate it.
The outline for the novel is coming along, and the writing has begun! I plan to have this novel completed by the end of the year, so I have to sort out important things that need to happen at various points, and when in the novel they need to happen. Off to a good start.
Shout out to my wife who also completed a story today and submitted it. Good luck to her!
I’m working on one short story that is about 75% done (first draft), and I will be using NaNoWriMo to kickstart my first novel. I want to finish the it (again, first draft) by the end of this year. Space dragons! Wormholes! Aim for the stars, right?
I’m also getting the Trace the Stars anthology ready to send off to the interior layout editor, and the final line edits are almost done. Only about 3.5 months until it is released, so I’m getting excited! The call is still open for the A Dragon and Her Girl benefit anthology, so if you have a story you want considered, please submit it!
I had a lot of fun at FanX 2018, despite standing on cement for about 10 hours each day for 3 days hawking books at Bard’s Tower. My feet, legs, and back have mostly recovered now.
What made it so fun and enjoyable was seeing a lot of people I already knew, and meeting new people I hope to see again. All kinds of local (mostly Utah, but a few from surrounding states, and even one from Canada) writers were there, as well as many local artists. I’ve been around in the convention circuit since 1990 in Utah, so many of these people I have met many times. However, in this post, I want to focus on four people I hadn’t previously met: Mercedes Lackey, Melinda Snodgrass, Jonathan Maberry, and Ron Friedman.
Mercedes Lackey is one of my favorite short story writers. Yes, I know she’s written about a bazillion novels, too, but I haven’t read any of them (yet…I picked up the five books in the Secret World Chronicles while there). I have read a lot of her short stories over the years, though, and she really knows how to tell a story. In addition to that, she took time in between talking to fans and signing books to lend an ear to my questions and provide me with a lot of really useful advice and information about writing, how to outline novels, and so on. I have met hundreds of authors over the years, and she is in the top 1% as one of the absolute nicest people I have ever met. If you ever get a chance to meet her or talk to her, do it!
Melinda Snodgrass is a book/short story writer and screenwriter. If you watched Star Trek: The Next Generation, she wrote some of the best episodes in that series. Go look her up on IMDB. I’ll wait. See? She really knows her stuff. I haven’t read any of her stories yet, but I bought a few while there and I’m looking forward to them (especially the Imperials Saga). She was also very friendly, and she gave me a lot of good writing career advice and some insight into her experience editing the Wild Cards series with George R.R. Martin. Check out her works!
Jonathan Maberry is best known for his Joe Ledger and Rot & Ruin series, as well as many different anthologies he’s edited. He offered suggestions about editing anthologies, I enjoyed our couple short chats (the FanX programming people kept him really busy this year). I’ve read some shorts in the Joe Ledger series, as well as a few stories in the V Wars series (which is being made into a TV series by Netflix, due out around March 2019, I’ve heard), and he writes very well. I’m not big into zombie stories, but I like his style.
Ron Friedman has a time travel World War II novel, Typhoon Time, that came out a few months ago from WordFire Press. I haven’t read it yet, but it sounds intriguing. This was (I believe) his first time at FanX, and he sold out of his novel at the booth. Way to go! I enjoyed talking with Ron, too. I hope he continues to attend cons where I’m also there so I can chat with him again.
