Skinners #7

Things have been crazy lately! I’ve been doing a ton of work, although a lot of it isn’t exactly easy to find. A big part of most writers’ income includes work for hire which is along the lines of ghostwriting. Hey, work is work and bills gotta get paid. The main reason I’m mentioning this is because I’ve been talking about working on the next Skinners for quite a while and this is why it’s taken so long for me to get it completed. I’ve been working on a couple different projects at once for the last few years and Skinners has always been top of my list.

Of course, I’ve got other stuff in the works, but more on that some other time. This is a Skinners post! As lots of you already know, I’m publishing the next one on my own digitally. If there’s enough demand, I can look into print copies, but for now this’ll be the way to go. As of today, I’m closing in on finishing the manuscript for Book 7!!!! Woo Hooo!!!! It took me a while to gear up for this one and then a little while more to figure out where, exactly, I wanted to go after Extinction Agenda. I’ve always had a general idea, but the “exactly” part of that last sentence is the tricky part. Trust me, that extra gestation time pays off in the end. I’m REALLY happy with how this is turning out.

Another thing I’ve always said is that I always saw Skinners as an ongoing storyline with arcs that change Cole’s world in major ways. Basically, every 3 books is an arc and #6 (despite the rather final statement at the end of that one) wasn’t meant to wrap everything up. It was the end of an arc and Book 7 is the start of a new one. And hoo boy, are there some changes! Don’t want to spoil anything for anyone, but this new arc shakes everything up while fitting in very nicely with the series.

So…Book 7. Right now, it’s called Forged from Ash and I’m shooting for a release date of this summer. My personal goal is to get it out there in June, but I’ll say summer to allow for some extra editing if needed. There’s a lot to do, but it’ll get done. As for the future of the series, I’m guessing lots of you are thinking, “Cool. New Skinners! Will it take this long between EVERY freaking book in this series?”  The answer to that is NO! My goal is to put out more books per year. They’ll be a bit shorter than the last few (I’m thinking between 300 – 400 pages each) and will cost you guys a bit less. That’s another cool thing with me putting them out digitally. I can charge what I like, which will be in the neighborhood of $2.99 - $3.99 each. That may change after a while, but not for the first arc at least.

To my Facebook friends out there, I apologize for neglecting my posts lately. Truth is, I’ve been typing so much all day that the thought of typing socially hasn’t been too appealing. I check in a lot on my phone and stuff, but just get lazy and don’t post as much as I should. Honestly, I also figured I might lose a ton of you after 219 posts of, “Hey everyone! Still writing all day. Stayed up until 6am again. I miss Twinkies!”  That’s totally true, you know. I miss the HELL out of Twinkies.

2013 is gonna be the year where I really get things out there and follow through on so many of the plans I’ve been making in previous years. Hopefully this answers a lot of questions. I’ll have a lot more to say as things progress and can’t wait to see what you guys think of the next phase of Skinners! See what I did there? “phase” like phases of the moon? Werewolves? Now you see why not hearing from me all the time is a good thing. 

Anybody out there??

Weird day. We really take for granted how much contact we have with the outside world these days. I woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head....wait...that's a Beatles song. I woke up, had breakfast and drank some coffee without a single text, email or phone call coming my way. Normally, that would seem like a peaceful morning, but it was a little disconcerting.

Did something happen?
Was there an apocalypse of some kind and I missed the fireworks?
Is my internet down?

None of the above (as far as I know). Just no communication for Marcus today. I suppose it's better than getting inundated with BAD news. Still.....HELLOOOO??????

The (hot) Dog Days of Summer

I'm finally getting pumped for The Dark Knight Rises. Of coarse I'm a Batman fan, but there hasn't been much in the trailers to really get me going. Anne Hathaway as Catwoman? Well...that gets me going, but not in a family-friendly way. Heh. I'm sure it will be great and I will be seeing it soon.

Just returned from a road trip to the Poconos to spend some time with family. That was fun. Had to buy two new tires for my Hyundai Blowabout. Not so fun. That little seating area in the Walmart auto care section is not a happy place. Everyone internally snarling at having to watch their car through a little window as it gets cranked by dudes in coveralls. One old man who was there with me had to wait for an extra hour because the mechanics dropped their screwdriver into his air filter and it landed out of their reach. Oy.

And so the summer rolls on. I recently tried a stout beer that's brewed with coffee. Little bit of whiplash with the sudden subject change? Sorry about that. It just popped into my head and I thought I'd share. That coffee brew was AMAZING! Speaking of great tastes that could have very easily gone the other way, I've got an idea for a new pizza! Sliced hot dogs under a mix of cheddar and mozzarella cheeses. And, instead of pizza sauce, Spaghetti-Os!!! I think it's either gonna knock my socks off or make me puke. I'm off to buy some crust and find out for myself.

1 Vote for Hibernation

Is summer over yet??? Seriously, I wish I could just sleep through this crap. I live in West Virginia, which means I was one of MANY in the path of those land hurricanes...Doritos or whatever they're calling them...that knocked out power for several days. Several days of 100+ degree weather. Fun times. Now that my freezer is back, I'm in the process of testing how much of my thawed / refrozen breakfast pastries and burgers are still edible. So far, so good!

Went to see Amazing Spider-Man yesterday. I wasn't on board with ANOTHER Spidey origin rehash, but this one was actually fairly awesome. Familiar, but tweaked just enough to feel fresh. Surprisingly enough, I still felt bad when Uncle Ben died. Spoiler?? Only for someone living under a rock. Heh. Also saw Prometheus. That was cool, but not as cool as I was expecting. If I hadn't been looking for some air conditioned place to sit during the blackout, I probably would have waited for the DVD release.

Still hard at work on writing, of course. Got some big plans for the next Skinners. Actually, I will start the actual writing on that one this month! I've got two Skinners projects coming along. One is the next book in the series and the next is a side project I've had in mind for a long time. More later!

Billy Goat...NO MORE!!

I realize I age like any other mortal. I creak. I ache. Now, I can't just eat anything I want. Ok, let's not panic here. I had a jalapeno and cheese bagel which disagreed with me the MOMENT I got it down. Why does this warrant a blog post? Actually, it doesn't. Next question.

Why does this show up on my radar? Because I  used to be able to eat damn near anything without more than a brief moment of discomfort followed by some gurgle or burp that made it all better. You know, like when the Tasmanian Devil swallows some dynamite, his stomach swells for a second and then he spits out some smoke? Just like that!! Ahh, youth.

Feeling this bit of mortal discomfort made me understand how Superman felt when he got slapped around by that trucked dude from Gremlins in Superman 2. Clark and Lois were at that little diner somewhere...was it in Metropolis or somewhere out in the arctic? I was never clear on where that place was. Hmmm. But when Clark gets tossed off of Gremlin dude's stool and sees the blood on his face, he has this expression that's a mix of shock, disbelief, fear and shame. I know how that feels now.

Or...could've been a bagel that would have turned anyone else into a pile of puking, diarrheal mush. Yeah! That's it!! Now I've found my conveniently placed power crystal that restores me in the event I step into the oddly placed chamber robbing me of my powers!!! If you don't know what I'm talking about, you really need to watch Superman 2.

Tell 'em I sent ya!

This is a cool time. Well...not actually COOL because I'm sweating into my Count Chokula (Chocula?? The cereal vampire and friend to Frankenberry. You know!) t-shirt as I'm writing this. By "cool" I mean great because it's finally time to see the fruits of a few labors. First of all, I got my first ebook out there as promised and have already begun working on others. Second, do you remember me talking about another website hosted by me and two other authors? Well, even if you don't remember that, the website is up and running!

It's called The Adventure Factory and it specializes in high-octane action and...yes...adventure! Cool stuff like westerns, steampunk, science fiction and thrillers will be shown there, most of which will be ebook originals. All three of us will be blogging there, so stop by and take a look at what we have to offer. As time goes on, keep checking in because a bunch of new books will be spotlighted. (spotlit?? No that doesn't sound right. Good thing I don't work with words). Anyway...click here to check it out!

This blog isn't going anywhere, so don't worry. I'll still be here griping about the regular bunch of nonsense. At least over at AF, you can read someone else's gripes for a change. And before some of you comment, yes I do know there are already other sites out there called Adventure Factory. But do those sites have pics of me in sweaty t-shirts glorifying old cereal mascots? DIDN'T THINK SO!!!!

More wisdom from Dr. Jones

First of all, the good news. After a little bit of a delay, Paris is Melting is now available for the Nook! Here's a link to pick it up at Barnes & Noble.com. While you're there, if you need to get your ebook copy of any of the Skinners books, those are still on sale. They make a great gift for Dad or anyone else. See, this is what I'm really bad at. I'm not much of a salesman. Unfortunately, writers need to sell themselves big time even if they're published through the big New York houses. That is, of course, unless you qualify for the ever-present asterisk when talking about the downside to being a professional writer. For example....Most professional writers don't get huge ad campaigns to sell their books*. Most of us can't retire after seeing our babies on the shelves*. And...most of us still need the occasional day job*  (* = unless you're the author of whatever young adult series happens to be hot at the time...or Stephen King.) That asterisk is kind of like the fortune cookie game where you tack on "in bed" to everything. Only the asterisk occasionally makes me want to shoot myself in the face. Heh. Wah-wahhhhhh.

Anyway, now that Paris is Melting is out, I am able to check my sales (or lack thereof) anytime I want. Is this a nifty gadget? Yes. Should I do it very often? No*. See, I knew my sales wouldn't be astronomical right away. It's a new book and I haven't started promoting it yet. Still, even though I'm just glad to see it out there, I keep checking! This is where Indy's sage advice comes in. "Don't look at it, Marcus! No matter what happens, just keep your eyes SHUT!" Ok, so in my mind he says Marcus instead of Marion. Is that weird? NO! Some people get angels talking to them or media advisers. Some of us don't get people in fancy offices looking out for our best interests*! So let me have Indy!!

Even though I don't expect the numbers to be huge yet and I know it will be a waste of time to look since, whether I see them or not, the numbers will be the same, I still look. I can't help it. Part of the fun? A little. It's just cool that Paris is Melting is out there. It's a series I am looking forward to continuing and it just makes me smile. I'm looking forward to hearing what you guys think of it so download a copy and let me know!