Yes, yes, I know it’s a little late to be talking about the new year but things have ben a bit busy the last few weeks.
In December in the afterglow of Mystery Men & Women vol. 5 being published
I worked happily away on my latest aviation story. Unfortunately, I ran into some snags. This was intended to be a fun little flying adventure set in the Spanish Civil war . . . and it is but it got a little serious during writing and while the action sequences were all great, I was unsatisfied with some of the conversations that turned out to be the real point of the story. So, I decided to table that story for a while and moved on.
Next up was an airship story for volume 2 of Zeppelin Tales, an Airship 27 anthology series. Using the zeppelin world I created for Flight of the Wasp and my recently completed Alternate History book Zeppelins Over Afrika, I decided to branch out and write an American airship story. That’s the fun discovery I made; In my zeppelin world I have almost unlimited airship stories I can write (And, other alt. history stories as well).
Anyway, I started in and was making good progress when I came down with a nasty head cold at Christmas. Thank God it wasn’t this nasty flu that is going around the country but it did knock me out for a few days. That plus all the visits and activities of the Christmas and New Year seasons (not to mention football playoffs and bowl games) kind slowed progress on my story.
I finished it a couple of weeks ago and am quite pleased with it. I had been concerned that the characters and airship action would seem too much like my German airship stories but I was pleased to see that the airship procedure and flying scenes had a definite American feel. Something I was actually trying to do (Surprise!).
So I am now knee deep in revisions hoping to get this one off to the publisher very soon. The biggest problem I’m having is that the story came out at well over 18K words. Getting rid of at least 2K words without gutting the story is proving challenging. Still, I’m sure that “Soft Landing” will be great start to my 2018 writing.
2017 was a somewhat slow year publishing-wise. I had only three stories published, all published in the last quarter of the year. As late as September I was beginning to worry that I might not have anything published at all but then several things fell quickly together. The best thing was that the stories were published by three different publishers. Spreading the work around often means reaching different audiences; always a good thing.
So what can we expect in 2018? Lots of good things, I think. My sources tell me that the long awaited Moon Man vol.2 will soon be published by Airship 27. This contains a fun little Moon Man story I wrote a long time ago. An early work but one I will be pleased to see published. So, all you Airship fans or classic pulp fans keep watch for the book soon.
More good news is I’m told that my Purple Scar novel is progressing nicely. A cover artist has been assigned and the inside artist is apparently working away. I have high hopes we’ll see this novel published in the late spring or early summer. Updates to follow.
A couple of other short stories are also progressing and could be published this year. I’m also hopeful that my full length zeppelin saga might be published later in the year.
So, all in all it is looking like 2018 could be a very good publishing year for my work. I’m excited about the new year.
Oh, I almost forgot . . . I got outstanding news a couple weeks ago. It turns out that this year’s Guest of Honor at Windy City Pulp & Paper Convention in April will be none other than F. Paul Wilson! This is great news. Mr. Wilson is my favorite living author and a master of the written word.
I have met Mr. Wilson at three different book signings and three years ago I actually got sit down with him for a few hours of some very pleasant conversation. We had a wide ranging conversation that covered topics from favorite Western movies to the state of medicine in America.
A lot of writers have had big effects on my life over the years. I look back now and regret that I never reached out to most of them to let them know how their writing had influenced my life. I got that chance with Mr. Wilson and it is one of my more pleasant memories.
At any rate, I hope to renew our acquaintanceship in Chicago. I can only hope he remembers me. So, I’m looking forward to Windy City this year more than usual. It is always a good weekend to talk writing and make contacts as well as a lot of fun. This year there is even more to look forward to.
That’s all for now. More news soon, hopefully.
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