I’m wiring this in the “Bearly Awake” coffee shop in Red River, NM. I’m midway through a writing retreat with a bunch of very cool fellows. It’s a beautiful town, and I’ve been having a blast both learning from them, and Getting Stuff Done.
What stuff, you might ask?
Well, I’ve spent some time these past few days finishing prepping to help promote Convoy of Chaos, the latest Car Wars anthology from Three Ravens Publishing. This contains my story “Milk Run” and a bunch of other cool tales from the likes of
, , , , and more!
Welcome to the world of the Car Warriors: Autoduel Chronicles — Tales from the freeways of the future, where the right of way goes to the biggest guns and death sports rule the airwaves. From clandestine highway battles to prime-time arena combat, jump behind the wheel, follow the fast-paced action, and never forget to Drive Offensively!
Despite the grain blight, fuel shortages, and wasteland raiders, supplies still need to get through. Ride along with the big rig convoys, road crews, and race teams of the wasteland, keeping civilization civilized one delivery at a time.
Convoy of Chaos— where every mile is an unforgiving battlefield, and survival rides shotgun.
If big rigs sporting repurposed naval weaponry isn’t your thing, then maybe you’d like to check out the Best of 2024: Presented by Raconteur Press. Edited by Ben Yalow, this one includes great tales from the likes of
, , and along with my (VERY!) wyrd west short story, “Benediction in Lead.”
Short stories contain an idea. Ask a question, then begin to answer it. In a short story, you can contain a perfect narrative; it may be short in the time it will take you to read, but not in the time it will linger with you provoking you to thought. These are those stories.
Have you ever wanted to try out the very best stories published by Raconteur Press? Well, after their author peers nominated them, Ben Yalow himself chose the top ten stories for this very special collection. Truly the cream of the crop, and a perfect selection to sample the wares of the Press, or to introduce a friend into reading Indie SFF.
There’s also been a little Kickstarter going on. This guy named Larry has some books about some dude hunting evil cryptids in the American west or something. I think the title is “SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY.”
Or maybe it’s actually American Paladin by Larry Correia, the Always Friendly International Lord of Hate himself. :)
Those of you who have been following me for a while know that Larry is one of the reasons that I decided to put Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard and start writing. Quite aside from that, he’s a great writer, and I’m excited to see how this series is going to shape up.
Welcome to the dark places of the modern American west, where mythic alternate worlds roam the landscape like so many weather fronts. And when fronts collide, horror spills out. Blood-soaked ground. Vanished neighbors. Towns gutted by monstrous horrors no one dares name. The so-called authorities won’t touch this stuff. Most won't even admit it’s real. But when the last shred of hope is nearly spent, there’s one man who will step into that darkness, a man who doesn’t fear the consequences. His name is Mike Spears.
“But Sam,” you say, “This is all well and good, but have you actually been writing at this here fancy writing retreat of yours?”
Excellent question!
I’ve been finishing up edits on The Novel Formerly Known as Blue as Sky. It looks like it will likely end up being titled Road Mage, and I’ll be handing the final version off to Cannon Publishing later this week. I’m very pleased with this one, for a number of reasons. I’ve had to read it more than a couple of times while editing it, and it never gets old. There are still things in this one that make me laugh, make me shiver, and make me proud.
On other fronts, I’ve got a call with my editor at
this week to talk about the state of edits for Sigils. I am really excited about it! It’s an urban fantasy story set in Pittsburgh and full of weirdness. I love the characters, and one of the things I’m doing this week is working on outlining the sequels.I mentioned previously that we ended up splitting Sigils into two parts. Now, I already had a sequel for this book lined up and halfway done; but there are elements there that I am not ready to introduce yet. I need to finish the story I started in Sigils first. That means I’ve spent part of this week looking at what I already have for the sequel, and shifting it around to determine what goes best in Book 2 (Runes) and what should be moved into Book 3 (which might be called Glyphs or—maybe?—Wards).
Let me tell you, I am excited about this series.
Oh, and one more thing… the submission window for Pinup Noir: High Class Muscle opens very soon! I’m editing this one, and I am absolutely stoked to see what yinz guys and all y’all throw my way. If you’re looking for help coming up with ideas, I definitely recommend this article from Joshua Palmatier on "Generating Ideas for a Themed Anthology." Good as that is, though, you really should read the homework before you start cranking on this one.
That’s it! Get out and enjoy the fall weather. After you leave me a review on Amazon and Goodreads, that is! :)