Writerly Things
The Official Blog of Author Tristan Vick
BITTEN 3: Kingdom of the Living Dead is in the can, meaning the first draft of the manuscript is complete. If you're a fan of the BITTEN series I can promise you this is one epic story. It comes in at just over 95K words, meaning it's a massive book! The only problem is, my publisher wants to focus on trying to push sales on BITTEN 1 and BITTEN 2 before proceeding with BITTEN 3. What does this mean? It means BITTEN 3's release date will get pushed back considerably. Probably a year or more.
But delays aren't always a bad thing. Because it is such a large novel I have time to go over it with a fine tooth comb and really shake all the knots and kinks out. It's the best work I've written to date, and it was the most fun -- especially since it involves both BITTEN 1 and BITTEN 2 characters. At the same time, my comedic detective series The Scarecrow & Lady Kingston, about a scarecrow that comes to life and joins the LAPD, isn't selling all that well. This has lead to the mutual decision to hold off on me writing and Winlock publishing future installments. That doesn't mean it's dead in the water though. If sales pick up or if I feel I have a story that will sell well, then I'll definitely write another one, but as it is it's a pretty quirky dark comedy and I it will probably need to develop a cult following before I come back to it. What does this mean in terms of my writing? Well, a couple of things. First, my time has freed up considerably now that I no longer am under a deadline for another S&K novel. Also, because of BITTEN 3's delay, I have more time to work on BITTEN 4. The second consequence of all this shuffling around is that I now have time to focus on my two sci-fi novels I am currently writing. I can now pay full attention to my cyberpunk book Robotica as well as devote more time to my dark apocalyptic sci-fi Exoverse. If that wasn't enough, I am plotting a full novel length yarn for my steampunk fairy tale book Little Red Gauntlet, based loosely on the Little Red Ridinghood fable. But wait! There's more! In addition to all of this, I may be co-authoring a zombie book with another popular ZomPoc author in the near future. We're still hashing out the details, but it's highly exciting and I hope we can come up with something solid in the near future so that I can share with you all the juicy details. So stay-tuned for updates on that. In the meantime, please enjoy the movie-style poster I made featuring a glimpse of my Robotica universe. Consider it a teaser. And, yes, I made it myself -- which explains the limited quality. But I tried my best.
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I was lucky to snag a bit of Jonathan Maberry's time, even as he is one of the busiest and most prolific writers in the buiz. He also happens to be one of the nicest and most generous as well.
As if you didn't already know, Maberry is a NY Times Bestseller and 5-time Bram Stoker Award winner. He is the author of the popular Rot & Ruin YA zombie series as well as the every popular Joe Ledger thrillers. He's written for Marvel comics, Dark Horse comics, and IDW Publishing. Please join me in this latest installment of micro interviews. Q1: How many books did it take until you felt like you came into your own as a writer? JONATHAN MABERRY: That’s actually a more complex question than you might think because I’ve written so many different kinds of books. When I was writing college textbooks back in the 1990s, I got found my groove with ESM: EFFECTIVE SURVIVAL METHODS, a women’s self-defense textbook that was used in dozens of colleges. In 2000 I wrote a big, sprawling nonfiction book about supernatural predators in folklore and world myth called, THE VAMPIRE SLAYERS’ FIELD GUIDE TO THE UNDEAD; but the mojo was slightly off because it was the only thing I’d ever written under a pen name (Shane MacDougall…long story). As for fiction, I think I really came into my own with my third novel, BAD MOON RISING, the final book in the Pine Deep Trilogy. I rocked that one. Q2: Can you share with us one catchy phrase from a WIP or a recent release? JONATHAN MABERRY: This is a line from KILL SWITCH, my latest ‘Joe Ledger’ thriller: When giant violent albino penguins are the least extraordinary issue of the day, then your day has slipped a gear. Q3: What's a writing tip you'd give an aspiring writer that you had to learn on your own the hard way that nobody had told you about early on but you wish they would have? JONATHAN MABERRY: Learn both the craft of writing and the business of publishing. Know each deeply, be good at both. That’s the way you’ll be able to turn a hobby or a passion into a lifestyle. I can look back at my career trajectory and see that the point in my life where I learned –really learned—how publishing works, was when my career went from neutral to pedal-to-the-metal fast lane. So, yeah…do that. For more info regarding Jonathan Maberry and his work, please check out his official author website and blog at: www.jonathanmaberry.com If you'd like to subscribe to the free Maberry newsletter click on the link: http://www.jonathanmaberry.com/contact.cfm You can also find Jonathan Maberry on social media at: www.facebook.com/jonathanmaberry www.twitter.com/jonathanmaberry http://www.imdb.me/jonathanmaberry Also by Jonathan Maberry THE NIGHTSIDERS Bk 1: THE ORPHAN ARMY - Simon & Schuster ROT & RUIN series- Simon & Schuster THE JOE LEDGER THRILLERS- now in development by Lone Tree Entertainment and Vintage Picture Company! BAD BLOOD -from Dark Horse Comics X-FILES: a series of all-new anthologies from IDW Publishing V-WARS: IDW -anthology and comics; now in development for TV GHOSTWALKERS -A Deadlands novel from TOR |
Tristan VickBy day I am an educator and a cultural ambassador. By night I entertain notions of being a literary master. In reality I am just a family man and ordinary guy who works hard and loves writing just about as much as I love my family. Just about. AVAILABLE NOWNEWSLETTER
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