Summer 2011

Spring is usually a busy time for me and this past spring was no different. I have spent the last month preparing and completing my annual recurrent airline pilot training. For those of you who have read Beautiful Hardship, you should know that I'm not a fan of the simulator! With that taking up much of my time, my current novel Lapse of Reason was shelved for the time being. My third novel which was to be released early next year has sort of gone from a novel to a screen play. It was brought to my attention that it would make a better movie than a book so I have elected to write the screen play instead of publishing it. I will soon be kicking in doors in Hollywood trying to sell it!
Recently, I purchased the rights to Beautiful Hardship as I was not happy with the publisher's lack of involvement in the marketing end of it. I have elected to re-release it as a second edition with my current publisher so it will soon be available on kindle as well as the usual places such as Amazon and Borders. It will always be available on my website. I am also trying to set up a book signing in Milwaukee to coincide with a feature article of me in Milwaukee Magazine to be out soon. I will post as soon as I have a date set.
As for my personal time, I have taken up biking. I recently purchased a road racing bicycle and have been putting myself through the rigors of 40-50 mile bike rides with the intention of increasing them to 100 miles as I'm planning a ride to my home state of Iowa in late summer. If I could master the art of clipping and unclipping from my pedals, I would consider it progress. If you see a short, bald guy laying underneath a very expensive bike at a stop sign, please help. I obviously forgot to unclip from the pedals!

It's been way too long!

Ok so I'm getting lazy in my old age. I guess the house projects have been getting the best of me. Who'd have thought I 'd ever say that? When you live in your truck, you only worry about gas! I've been nickle and diming my latest "novel at work" and it's really all I can do to keep up with the characters in it. It seems that every time I find a piece of a character, a defining something or other about them, another one pops up. When I begin a story, I know two things...a beginning and an end. Whatever happens in between is driven by the characters. They are, but pieces of imagination running through my mind and the story follows them; ie...A man crosses a street, nothing exciting, but if he gets hit by a car, now the story branches into the life of the person driving the car. So that's where I'm at with Lapse of Reason, I introduced a physchiatrist and the story turned in directions that I couldn't have previously imagined. I'm half way there...to the ending that I have already written. Now for an update on my personal life, I am seeking resolution to a private matter via a lawsuit. I have been wrapped up with this more than I'd like, but it's very winnable, more importantly, I'm seeking what's right. I filed an anonymous complaint on the TSA's website and someone over there abused their power by puting my complaint on the executive's desk of my employer. For those of you who know me, you know that profanity can make itself known in my words and it did in this complaint. My employer suspended me for three days without pay. That's about all I can say in regards to it, but I have a sharp attorney who has assured me that the wrongs will be righted. Just know that it has been mentally taxing and very time consuming to juggle that in with my everyday life. I'll try to update this more often!

So what do you do when your book comes out and you find a tiny little mistake in it? You call your editor and cuss them out and then you hire one that is smarter than you. In order to be a success in this world, you have to surround yourself not only with smart people, but ones smarter than yourself and even with a resounding number of people proofing and editing, things sometimes get missed.
Best selling author Sandra Brown had a character in one of her novels undo the tire cap on a car tire and it let the air out of the tire. Survey says...you can't do it. Air won't come out of the tire simply by removing the cap. She caught it when her readers flooded her with emails. I sent her one telling her to tell them to go pack sand! She sent me a nice email thanking me for making it seem so trivial and humorous. I think I'm going to intentionally make a mistake in all my books just to see if the readers find it and then to the first one who does, I'll refund their money. Beautiful Hardship had a mistake and only two people found it. Child's Wrath now has one also and it was found by my girlfriend; therefore relieving me of any obligation to give a refund; however, I have called her dad and told him to come get her. I'm a perfectionist to the point of obsessive compulsive and I proofed the manuscript a hundred times so for her to find the mistake while reading the book a second time absolutely crushed me. She could've told me that she didn't like bald men at that point or that I was too fat for her tastes; it had the same effect. I fell to the floor and curled up in a ball. My cats comforted me as they one by one came over and nibbled on my ears and pawed at the wrinkles on the back of my neck. So here it is to all my readers, I AM SO SORRY!! I will have the publisher correct the mistake. The biggest problem with that is that the author has to pay the costs to change the printer set. I'm ok with that. Since my girlfriend found it, I'm using her birthday and Christmas money.
What was the mistake? Let's just say that you should never try to proof one manuscript while writing another...you'll get your characters mixed up!

Child's Wrath...so it's finally out there and I can't tell you how happy I am...I'm tired of reading and proofing! Ugh! It's available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon and the Kindle version will be out shortly. I will have limited copies available here on the website, but the price is about the same as anywhere else with the only advantage being that website copies will be signed and personalized at the buyer's request.
I'm getting settled in Milwaukee and preparing for the winter cold. I am also in the process of finishing my latest novel, Lapse of Reason, though it won't be published for quite some time. Blue Skies Bleed Green, which was considered, but eventually turned down by the film industry, will probably be out in 2012; not sure we'll make the 2011 deadline. It's the publishing world; roll with it. As always, thanks to all of you and your continued support!

Can I just stop and catch my breath? Wow! This is by far the busiest month I've had in ages. I am in the process of moving to another city. Milwaukee here I come! Why? I also have a new job! I am returning to the airlines starting in June. In addition to those life changing events, I have just received the final draft of my next book, Child's Wrath. It should be available next month, just depends on how fast I can proof it with everything else thats going on!
Now for the bigger news, my third book, Blue Skies Bleed Green scheduled for release in 2011 is currently being consider for adaptation to a screen play for film. I met with producers in LA last week and we discussed it at length. They are now in possession of the manuscript and I hope to hear from them soon. I hope everyone is enjoying some spring weather and thanks for checking back to the website! A special thanks to Angie B. for making the changes to the site!

Changes are coming

Changes with the website are coming so I am going to hold off with another blog post until things have settled!

As with anything in life, things in the book world change rapidly! I haven't been able to get a book store in Richmond, Virginia or Washington D.C. to commit to a signing event so I knocked on a few more doors here in Denver. I will be doing a book signing at The Bookery Nook in Denver in March. I have put the date on my website calendar. I will also be appearing at The Boulder Bookstore in Boulder, Colorado in May. For those of you anxiously awaiting my next book, the cover design for Child's Wrath is almost finished. When I have the final design, I will be updating the website so that you can check it out!