Well … the check cleared the bank.

The Dinosaur Lords. It’s on.

Look for it in early 2013!

Rawr!

And that was all she wrote.  And all I’m gonna write, on this one.

Now, this is by no means unalloyed bad news. It’s not as if I don’t have plenty to do. Leaving aside The Dinosaur Lords and the rest of the Ballad of Karyl’s Last Ride Trilogy – which granted is a lot to leave aside, and have you checked out the swell free sample chapters here online? – I’ve also got a contract to do novels in the Deathlands series. One of which I am even now battling non-life-threatening but draining smoke-induced sickness to complete.

I won’t lie: I’m taking a hit here to the tune of around $20,000 income over the next two years. Which is a definite owie. That money would be welcome.

It’s not necessary to make it through. I won’t be flush. But barring the Unforeseen (knock wood) I should get by just fine. I am gonna have to think long and hard about the planned car upgrade, though. (I do get to keep all that’s been paid me – well enough, since it’s all been for work done and delivered. I just get no more, including the delivery and acceptance payment for the first novel.)

I could have fulfilled all these writing tasks, and done them well; I have made some changes in my life, and am producing different, and better, outcomes than ever before. There are more reasons to be just as glad to be shut of it.

First off, I write to entertain – first myself, then others.  Indeed I have found my success in doing the former is pretty directionally proportionally to my success at the latter. My belief is that if it’s not fun for me to write, how can it be fun to read? And so it seems to go.

(I understand other people have different experiences; remember the Second Iron Law of Writing, which is that One Size Never Fits All.)

Consequently if I can’t have fun with a project, I won’t take it on. Fortunately, I’m good at finding fun in writing projects. I did have fun with the Seekrit Projekt, and would have continued to. But … I wasn’t looking forward to it all that much, I must confess. The books would’ve become increasingly more bleak, and that’s not my schtick. Although we do know someone whose schtick it definitely is, don’t we? For me, it would’ve grown harder to find the fun. This harder to write – at least well.

And anything I write, I want to write well. Well for what it is, obviously – the sort of attention I lavished up The Dinosaur Lords would not be appropriate for the straight-up action/adventure series books, it is not expected, and in truth, would probably not be welcome.

Also. I straight-up have to admit I was kind of dreading the editorial notes the CEO would come back with. He’s been … mercurial, let’s say, throughout the course of my dealings with the company. Indeed there’s a whole strange and terrible – yet ultimately (to me at least) – wonderfully uplifting saga here which I’ll save for a future post.. But … I reckoned he might come back with drastic changes.

Nothing quite this drastic, obviously. And that’s an agonizing and no doubt enormous rewrite I do not have to do!

I felt the hit, I have to tell you. I am not yet Zen/Stoic enough to refuse utterly to allow external factors to influence my internal state. (I don’t know if I ever care to be quite that impenetrable; rather, I prefer to learn to control my state in part by cultivating people, events, and circumstances which conduce to my feeling good. But that’s a way different post!) The phrase, “a humiliating kick in the crotch” has resounded and rebounded through my mind considerable the last twenty-four hours. (Which I thought was from Pink Floyd’s The Wall, somewhere, but to my surprise turns out to come from the Police song, “Synchronicity II.” Which by coincidence is one of the few Police songs I like.)

Still … it did not, and does not, hurt. As I’ve said, there’s as much silver lining as cloud here. Indeed, although I promised the editor I would fulfill the contract when she asked after I announced the DinoLords sale, before that I did consider trying to buy out from under. But for various reasons including my desire to be true to my craft by behaving as professionally as I can, I chose to suck it up carry the commitment.

And now that weight is gone! And I did not choose to try to escape it.

Last night I went to dinner with my excellent friends Roslee Orndorff and Steve and Kathy.Kubica. Then when that broke up I joined my likewise excellent friends Larry Hays and James Wilson for iced tea  in a nearby establishment. So, double dose o’ socializing:  bonus! And when I eventually came home, quite tired out, I realized I felt good.

That in itself, is victory. It represents real and enormous progress.

Thanks to everybody for the support they’ve given me on this. And as always, thanks for reading!

Yes, even this dude's horny for the latest Wild Cards hotness.

Yes, boys and girls, it’s Fort Freak, the latest installment in the long-lasting series of senses-shattering shared-world anthologies known to an awestruck world as Wild Cards. This time out we launch a new triad (our fancy-dancy name for “trilogy”) by getting back to the roots of the whole Wild Cards Universe: Jokertown. And – it’s a genre-busting cop-u-drama.

This time out we bring the hot new blood with a vengeance. The sizzling interstitial material was written by one Cherie Priest, the widely and justly acclaimed High Priestess of Steampunk (slumming here:  it’s steamy, and there are certainly punks, but this isn’t alternate history – it’s alternate now.) There’s Paul Cornell, Hugo-nominated writer for comics and some obscure Brit TV SF show about some doctor (who?.) Plus we got David Anthony Durham, who brings with the 2009 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. There’s USA Today Notable Book author Mary Anne Mohanraj. And finally what I think’s the debut effort from one half of James S. A. Corey – author of the terrific new space opera Leviathan Wakes – and assistant to the series editor, That American Tolkien Guy: the all-round excellent Ty Franck.

Then, as if that wasn’t enough to blow the top off your Awesomometer – wait, there’s more! We’ve also got our older-school Wild Carders (and even some original Wild Cards Mafiosi): series co-editor Melinda Snodgrass; Steve Leigh, who’s Bubonicon 43 Author Co-Guest of Honor with the mysterious SL Farrell; the irrepressible Kevin Andrew Murphy; and the ever-popular John Miller.

Oh, and yeah – proving once again that you really can’t keep a good man down: me.

And – even though it surfeit ye with wonder* – there’ll be a signing of Fort Freak on Saturday, July 9th, 2011, 2:30 PM MDT at Albuquerque’s own independent bookstore Page One (they don’t do permalinks, there, so, legions of dear future readers, use your imaginations). Attending will be Melinda Snodgrass, John Jos. Miller, and of course, me. Oh, and George R.R. Martin. Him too.

(Just a note: this’ll happen before the release of A Dance with Dragons, his newest volume in that other little series he works on, so please adjust your expectations accordingly.)

Meanwhile, there are plenty of other things going on here in Victor World, some of them quite exciting. But you’ll have to wait to read about them. Mainly because now I best go do a few of them.

As always – thanks for reading!

*Apologies for being even more bombastic than usual, but I spent last weekend at the Albuquerque Comic Expo hanging with the likes of Stan “the Man” Lee and Len Wein – whom I actually did spend time with, thanks to Melinda. And had a swell time doing so indeed! Impressionable lad that I am, it clearly affected my brain.

Megathanks to founders and show-runners Greg Derrick and Mike Thompson for inviting us to come play, and showing such strong support for Albuquerque creators, Wild Cards in particular, and for Bubonicon! Plus a huge thank-you to all the participants and wonderful volunteers – many of them Bubonicon stalwarts themselves, who made it all possible. With a special shout-out to Michelle Foley, for getting me my actual Celebrity Guest badge, and thereby validating my presence, if not my entire existence!

A suave new cover for a suave new edition!

The book that started it all, Wild Cards I, was re-released today. Along with that gorgeous Michael Komack cover, it features all new stories by Michael Cassutt, David D. Levine, and Carrie Vaughn. Which names might be familiar if you’ve ever, oh, I don’t know – maybe watched television, heard of the Hugo Awards, or checked out the New York Times Best Seller List?

Following fears a fan expressed on one of my FaceBook posts (check out that link and this one to join the hoppin’ discussions – plus learn hitherto unrevealed Wild Cards lore!) let me reassure you: we are not pulling a George Lucas. This isn’t a re-imagination. The original material is just that – the stories from the book that launched the twenty-five year and counting phenomenon that is Wild Cards. All your favorite stories, from the likes of Roger Zelazny, Walter Jon Williams, and That American Tolkien Guy* himself, George RR Martin, are still in there, and still the same! (And, yes, one by me, too.)

Overall, I can do no better than refer you to this great (in either sense) early review by long-time fan Drew Bittner.

And maybe a review by a self-professed fan isn’t entirely unbiased. Yet consider: Wild Cards is the sort of thing to attract – and keep – long-time fans. And if the new material satisfies a long-time fan, that says something, yes?

The fact is, Drew is by way of an expert on the series, as shown on the Captain Comics Wild Cards Forum. Plus he writes a solid review. So why not go check it out for yourself? I’ll wait.

I had a lot of important things to do today. And you know what?  Squeeing about this is definitely one of them.

I am learning to enjoy life. Part of that is owning and celebrating my successes and accomplishments.  Contributing to a volume worth reissuing a quarter century after original publication – being one of the original creators of and regular contributors to a series that’s, fits and starts notwithstanding, still going strong after so long – is a hell of an achievement, frankly. We’ve earned it. I’ve earned it.

I’ve even earned the right, as a straight middle-aged guy whose only sexual interest is in adult human females, to say “squee.”

SQUEEEEE!

*Why, no, I never do get tired of that. Deal.

Rustbelt rocks crocs.

Okay, it’s cheesy. Times are tough. It behooves us all to hustle, yes?

And while you can’t actually buy Suicide Kings until 12-22-09, you can hop over and catch the first review from – wait for it – Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist.

Yes, I know the cover looks as if the book is totally GEORGE R. R. MARTIN by Suicide Kings. which could make a passable black metal CD. But admit it: the painting is awesome.

How can you resist a face like this?

Visit Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist to enter and have a shot at winning both Inside Straight and Busted Flush. Remarkably fine as a Christmas gift for a friend or loved one, including you. (I’m assuming you’re on good terms with yourself, yes? At least speaking?)

Of course, I’m only in the latter volume. But Inside Straight is well worth a read, for its own sweet sake as well as continuity.

And even if you don’t win, you can still break down and buy both books, now in handy paperback and Kindle editions!

Inside Straight: Paperback, Kindle.

Busted Flush: Paperback, Kindle.

Enjoy! And may the luck of the draw favor you…