Today's post is a day late because yesterday the SO and I did something we haven't done since January. We took the day off in order to have lunch and go to a movie.
The movie was
Sicario and it was an entertaining way to spend a couple of hours. I always like Emily Blunt. Lunch was okay. I am increasingly bored by chain restaurant food. I don't miss the lesson afforded by it, however, and that is that in a world full of tired, harried people, opting for the tried and true--even if the tried and true is mediocre--is frequently the best, or at least the usual, choice. This is just as true in publishing as elsewhere, which is why "discoverability" is such a challenge for writers. And why they spend so much time talking about writing rather than actually writing.
This has turned out to be a very strange year. Granted, the only real unexpected turn of events was buying a new house. Everything else was planned out last year--and went pretty much according to plan. But buying a new house...I had no idea how time consuming and complicated that would be. We're
still not completely moved out of the old house, and I am increasingly nervous about the items that were left behind. Like all my Christmas stuff. All the vintage Christmas ornaments handed down through my family...that stuff worries me. The other stuff...well, I can't say I'd rejoice at losing several years worth of tax papers, but it wouldn't break my heart the way losing those 1950s mica Christmas angels would.
Once upon a time a couple of novels and two short stories would have been considered a productive year. Now days...not so much--despite the distractions of moving house, two trips to Catalina, the uproar resulting from connecting my real identity to my pen name, and a trip to Scotland. That's a pretty big year with almost no "down" time.
The one creative casualty was my story intended for an anthology to benefit the
Trevor project. Unfortunately I ran about a month behind on
Jefferson Blythe, which meant that I was packing for Scotland and dealing with emails from readers when I should have been writing my story for charity. Now, I can--and will--donate the cash the story would have earned to the Trevor Project. That's not an issue. But I wanted to write that story--and I hate not fulfilling my commitments. I'm sorry to disappoint those of you who were looking forward to my contribution, but the anthology is still going to be terrific. Please support the effort of these wonderfully generous and talented authors and others! I'll keep you posted on the release date details.
I'm reluctant to commit to anything for next year. Which is to say I've already committed to a huge and complicated non-fiction project and beyond that...there are two novels contracted to Carina Press:
Murder Takes the High Road (Scottish tour bus who-dunnit) and
Fair Chance (3rd and final story in the All's Fair trilogy). I know what I would
like to do--and that's a number of tightly written mystery novellas in the vein of the things I wrote early on--but we'll kind of have to wait and see.
As for what is still coming this year...
Well, the release of
Jefferson Blythe, Esquire (as an ebook and in audio). That's November 16th.
Several audio books including
Winter Kill, Murder in Pastel, Dark Horse White Knight, Baby, it's Cold, and the
M/M Mystery and Suspense Box Set are still to come.
I'm contributing an essay on James Colton (Joseph Hansen) to
Curt Evans for his untitled but upcoming book on LGBT mystery to be published by McFarland Press next year.
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| jbe-inspired artwork for coloring book |
There are a number of Italian and French translations in the works for a 2015 release.
Lone Star in Italian.
The Dark Tide in Japanese.
A Dangerous Thing in French.
The Darkling Thrush in Italian... I'm sure I'm forgetting other titles!
There will be a Josh Lanyon coloring book called
Love is a Many Colored Thing, illustrations by Johanna Ollilia. If you love coloring books for grown ups, there's a good chance you'll enjoy the art and excerpts in this one.
There will possibly, probably, be a Christmas story, but again, I'm leery of making promises.
And there will most likely be a number of Holiday Codas.
And that's all I want to commit to just at the moment. It seems like a lot to me, but compared to other years...well, the only less productive year I've had from a writing standpoint would have to be the year I took off. My sabbatical year. ;-) But it's been a really good year. A really satisfying and productive year from a personal standpoint. A year of growth and change--a year that gives me a lot to write about. And that is always a good thing.
