How long is too long between books?

I’m wrapping up the last bits of the first draft of the follow-up to Chasing Filthy Lucre. It’s been a long process, with stops and starts. I think I’ve written close to 40,000 words on one version that will never see the light of day. It’s good stuff, but not right for this book.

I never intended to go this long between books. I have all three of the remaining books loosely plotted. It’s just finding time to write them all that’s hard.

Anyway, I got to thinking about this the other day and wondered if I’d missed my window. Have I waited too long between books? Is any momentum I had built gone at this point? We are looking at a little more than a year between releases.

So I turned the question over to the people who follow my author page on Facebook. They gave me some great answers, but I’d love to hear from all of you here, too. Here’s the question. Answer in the comments. I’ll respond.

When reading a series, how quickly do you want the next book to come out? Assuming that immediately is not an answer, what's the right amount of time between installments?

What if that series is not a serial, meaning that the next book doesn't continue the story started in the book before it, but features a recurring main character?

Steve Umstead on the end of a series

Steve Umstead is a guy I met through Twitter. He’s a sci-fi writer, travel company owner, and a generally nice guy. He’s recently finished his Evan Gabriel trilogy, so I sent him a few questions. He sent me a few answers. Update: In the few weeks since we did this interview, Steve has announced that he'll be releasing a prequel novella that goes deeper into Gabriel's backstory. (And, no, this isn’t the first time we’ve done this. I’ve interviewed him before. You can read that here.)

Without giving too much away, give us the Evan Gabriel story. Tell us why we should commit to this three book series.

The Gabriel trilogy is a science-fiction adventure story, set in the near-future, that follows the arc of a disgraced Navy Special Forces Commander as he travels the road to Redemption (to find his way back into the life he once knew), his Return (a mission to the site of his most haunting memories), and finally his Revenge (as the final straw in his rough life has been placed on his shoulders).

As someone who is also working on a series of books, I have to know, what's it like to type that final "the end?" Is it more relief that you're done? Or is there some disappointment that it's over?

I don't think it's either, relief or disappointment -- not even sure if it's sunken in yet. It's been an entire year living with the story and the characters, but knowing how the story would end from day one meant I was prepared for it. Writing the last scene was very exciting, wrapping it all up, all 220k+ words in three stories, but relief or disappointment I don't think characterizes the feeling. Maybe just exhaustion?

Are you finished with Evan, or will we see him again? If not, is he going to be a character you can easily let go?

I thought I was finished after the first book, only to find I wanted to (a) explore that universe more, and (b) go further into the characters and Gabriel's past, so I kept going. I knew, I swore, I was done after the trilogy was complete, but in the weeks following, as I thought more and more about it, there were several places within the arc that spoke of a deeper backstory for Gabriel. I also had several readers asking the same question - will we see him/them again? Which leads naturally into a further story, but this time a prequel. I've already got a few things sketched out in an outline, as have two chapters written, of a prequel showing how he became who he was at the beginning of book one.

Is a series something you want to tackle again?

Most definitely. It was a blast creating the universe the characters lived and acted within, so to create that for one story only seems like a waste. Also, the characters themselves didn't get developed enough in one book, which was actually my impetus for doing a second and third book (even though I knew how the story would end, I never planned on a trilogy, believe it or not).

What's up next for you?

Well, drats - answered that to some extent above. In addition to the prequel, I've had a couple other non-Gabriel stories dancing around in my head (including one non-military scifi that was getting in the way of completing book three) that I will try to put to paper this year. My goal is to write and release three full-length novels in 2012, as well as maybe some novellas, perhaps tangents to the Gabriel universe (I've had several readers comment on some of the secondary characters as well).

The 5 Ws and 1 H of me

Back in December when I was still unemployed I had a friend I used to work with ask me to speak to her creative writing class.

I’ve never been a  great public speaker, but something that I read at the time suggested that if you want to be a successful author you need to be comfortable in front of people. So, I went.

It went fine.  The class was nice. They paid attention, well, most of them. At the end there was a time for questions. Right away, one of the people in the class – I think it was one of the campus’ librarians – asked what kind of writer I was. I gave some rambling answer  about genre and how all my stories seem to have some kind of crime involved somewhere, whether it’s big or small.

I was happy with the answer and moved on. I answered a few more questions when a kid in the front asked me “Why do you write about crime?”  Great follow-up, and it gave me an idea for a series of blogs.

When I was in school – well, when most of us were in school – I learned about the 5 Ws and an H. The questions words. Who. What. Where. When. Why. How.

Why is crime a central part of nearly all my fiction was something I’d never explored. Then, as I thought more about it. I’d never answered the other questions about my writing. Like “Who am I as a writer?” “Why do I write?” “What do I write?”

Maybe it was something I should do. Maybe it was something that could be useful. So that’s what I’m doing. For the next few Mondays I’ll be taking a hard look at those questions and try to answer them.  

Hope you enjoy it. Hope I get something out of it.

Trying a new routine

I'm up at 5 a.m. this morning. I never get up at 5 a.m. But with this being my first day at my new job, I thought that getting up at 5 a.m. would give me an hour to write before I needed to start getting ready for work.

I've been fairly productive, which is nice. There were some things I needed to add to the second Jackson Cane story. I did that. I wrote this blog post.I'm going to look at another piece I've been working on.

Still not sure, though, how long this routine will last. Even if I am a morning person, 5 a.m. comes early.

Back among the employed

Yesterday I accepted a position with a local marketing firm. I'm back among the employed. I can't tell you all how much of a relief it is to have a job again. With a baby coming, Gina and I are about to have some expenses that her salary and my unemployment check just weren't going to be able to cover.

I go in for a little bit of training today, but my first official day is Monday. That's February 6. I was laid off September 6. I will have been out of work 5 months exactly.

We'd been praying about me finding a job. We knew that our timing wasn't necessarily God's timing. We would have loved for me to find a job right away, but I didn't. It got frustrating at times. Especially those times when it seemed like something was right around the corner. I had a couple of very promising interviews with one company early on. I was sure that I was going to get that job. Then we didn't hear from them for more than a month. Finally, around Christmas they called to tell me that, while they liked me and thought I interviewed well, they went with someone else. That crushed us. Well, me for sure. I think Gina had already written that job off.

But this job that I accepted came up quickly. I heard about it and sent my resume to them on a Wednesday morning. Talked with the woman who will be my boss that afternoon. Interviewed for a few hours on Friday. And less than a week later I got hired. I have to think that it was pretty divine timing. When it's the right job there aren't any roadblocks in the process.

As for what I'll be doing in the position, it's mostly editing. There will be some writing and some coordinating of freelancers. This seems like the ideal job for me. Much better than the one that got away early on. It lets me take the skills that I spent 15 years building at the newspaper and use them. Plus I get to do some things that are new. New challenges were part of what I was looking for when I was searching. I really am very excited about how it all came about and about the new job.

For those of you who were keeping me and Gina in your thoughts, we thank you. It was tough, but we know that we're much better off than many people out there.

A quick diversion: JC Penney

Can you give me a minute to be design guy again? I haven't been able to be that guy since I lost my news design job in September. I'd thought that side of me was slowly withering away. But something came in the mail the other day that caused him to rear his head once again.

We got the new February JC Penney catalog in the mail. And let me say "Wow!" You've no doubt seen the commercials about the new pricing structure that JCP is introducing. Judging by my Twitter feed, many of you have seen more than enough about it, especially the commercials.

As a business story, that's interesting. And good luck with that, JCP. As a Dallas-based company, I hope that's wildly successful.

What I liked, though, was the look of the new catalog. It's sparse. It's spare. It's simple. The copy that's there is quirky. It's very much like what you see from Apple and Target and Ikea. And I like it. Simple photos of products on a white background. Simple pricing strategy. All of this seems to be geared toward sending a clear message. This isn't your mother's JCP anymore.

These kind of moves shouldn't be a surprise, really. The new CEO, Ron Johnson, was an executive at both Target and Apple. His charge at JCP is to make it more hip and cool. Have to say, he's heading in the right direction.

I'm not the only person who is impressed either. Those in the creative world like the look and feel as well. Check this link. Something I learned. The former top marketing guy at Target was hired by JCP recently. That actually explains a lot.

I'll be interested to see how well the new strategy works for JCP. Because, like I said, it's a local company. What's good for them is, by extension, good for the economy here. And, more importantly, Gina are Penneys people. I'd love to see the company succeed. I like their pants.

An even swap

Chasing Filthy Lucre is stuck. It's been out for almost a year now and the reviews it's received have been good. Really good, actually. But I could use more. When you are doing the publishing yourself you could always use more reviews. Can never have enough.

Back to being stuck. Over at Amazon.com, Chasing Filthy Lucre has had nine reviews for a few months now. They are all 4 and 5 stars. But it's killing me to see it stuck at nine. I want that tenth review. Heck, I want 20 reviews. I want 30.

Same goes for my newest story, Reunion. That story needs more than the one review it has right now.

I don't know how to get more reviews other than offering a free book to anyone who agrees to read either book and then provide an honest review at Amazon and/or Barnes & Noble.

Interested? Email me at jarrettrush@yahoo.com and I'll send you a copy of either book in whatever format you need. 

Or leave a comment here with a way to get in touch with you and which format you need.

Thanks in advance.

Prioritizing priorities

Yesterday I posted this on Twitter. (What? You didn't know I was on Twitter? I am. I'm here: http://www.twitter.com/JarrettRush. You should follow me. I'm much more active there than I am here, even though that's not something I'm proud of. Just what it is.)

Just got an idea for a novel. Bigger and more complex than anything I've ever tried before, but it could be AWWWE-SUUUM.

You were supposed to read that last part in a sing-song voice. No matter how you read it, though, the idea is awesome. I know that I probably shouldn't call my own ideas awesome. I should call it an idea with potential. I should call it something I'm excited about pursuing. But I'm not calling it any of those things. I'm calling it an awesome idea, because it is.

Now, making sure the awesome idea becomes and awesome story is completely up to me. Like I said on Twitter, it'll be a bigger, more complex book than anything I've ever attempted. It'll have more settings, more characters, more action, but I think I can pull it off.

This all got me thinking, though, about priorities and where to stack projects. I have the follow-up to Chasing Filthy Lucre that I've been working on and really need to finish. I have the rest of the Jackson Cane stories to write. I have another story that I've started and want to finish. And it could become another Jackson Cane-type series of shorts. I have a short story that I need to write to submit to an anthology. It's due in April.

So where do I work in this new story? Do I move it to the top of my list? Do I just jot down the idea with enough detail that when I can get to it I won't forget it?

I know that the professional thing to do is just stick the awesome idea at the end of the list. Finish everything as it comes up next and get to the new story when it's its turn. I don't know that I have a point to this post. I guess I'm just venting here.

I know that it's a horrible problem to have. Too many good ideas. Oh, poor Jarrett. His wallet's so full of hundreds that it makes him sit lopsided. Who knows? Maybe these aren't good ideas.  I like them, though. They have potential. They're fun. But which do I tackle first?

The second Jackson Cane story is coming soon

Last week I put the finishing touches on the second Jackson Cane story. It's been sent off to my writers group for them to look at it. I've got a copy I'm hacking up right now. Then Gina gets her turn with it. Hopefully, though, I can get the editing done on this one pretty quick and make it available.

It came in at 13,000 words, or pretty close to it. So it's 5,000 words longer than the original. At least for now it's longer. Who knows what it will be after editing. Longer for sure, but maybe not 5,000 words longer. And I know longer doesn't mean better, but it does mean more involved in this case.

If you think of the Jackson cane series like a TV series, and I am, then this is Episode 2. It's the episode that follows the pilot and the one that gets the story going. In the first episode you establish characters and relationships. In episode 2 is where you start telling your story. That's what happens here. I'm happy with Reunion, the first episode in Jackson Cane's story, but this is where the story that will carry us through the whole first season of the Jackson Cane saga gets started. Right now there are four more stories planned in this first series of tales. At the end of it things will look much different than they did at the beginning. It'll be a bigger world that we are dealing with, and some of the restrictions established early on should be gone. Should open up the stories creatively, which will be good for me and for the reader.

The story is called Scouts. Here's the cover. Look for it soon.

A look ahead to 2012

I know I was supposed to write this post some time last week and post it yesterday. But I've been enjoying spending time with Gina while she's been on Christmas break from school. Besides, it doesn't seem like a new year until Monday when everyone goes back to work.

I haven't had a lot of motivation to write much here, especially nothing that looked back at 2011. It was a weird year for me. There were a lot of downs. I lost my aunt in January and my grandmother in October. I lost my job in September. But there was one really huge up in 2011. In October, Gina found out she was pregnant. That sort of helped gloss over all of the bad stuff. It sets up 2012 to be my best year so far.

On the writing side of things, 2011 wasn't too bad. I published two stories, and hit almost 200 sales. I started to build a readership. I've got a few plans for 2012. I'm not calling them resolutions. The only resolutions I've made are with Gina and probably of little interest to those of you who are here. The plans I've made are goals.

1. Publish the second book in the New Eden series.
2. Write and publish the rest of the Jackson Cane series. It's five stories right now, and I've got the second almost finished.  The remaining three are loosely plotted. They should be easy to write.
3. To keep building my readership. Or following. Or presence. Or platform. Or whatever they call it. That's going to include blogging more regularly. Tweeting more and with the right people. When I started using Twitter I was getting so much more out of it. I'm not getting that now and I really think it's because I'm not using it like I should. I'm planning on making some changes there, but that's another blog post for another time.

Pretty simple goals, honestly. And all stuff I can control. Notice, there are no sales goals on there. That's because I can't control those. I can make sure people know about my books, and I try to do that, but I can't make them buy. But, hopefully, if I can be successful at goal No. 3 then sales will follow.

So, auf wiedersehen to 2011 and guten tag to 2012. It's going to be a good year. I'm going to be a dad.

A December goals update

I promised to keep you posted on my ambitious December goals. I needed to sell roughly 60 books in the month to hit the 200 mark for total sold. It was ambitious, but I was hopeful that I could do it. What good are goals if they are easily accomplished?

The month started out well. At the end of the first week I'd sold five books. That's a number some would sneeze at, but for me in a week that's great. However, it wasn't going to be good enough to make my goal. Sales needed to pick up the pace. They didn't. At the end of week one I was at five sales for the month. That's where I was at the end of week two. And that's where I am today. Five.

Unless things pick up considerably that last week of the month after everyone has opened their new Kindles, Nooks, and other e-readers, I'm going to miss the goal by a country mile.

I know there's very little I can do to actually influence sales in a significant way. A lot of the advice from people I trust is to not think too long about sales. Instead, focus on writing the next book. One book sells the other, and until you have a good-sized back list then sales are more likely going to be slower. But I promised some updates so consider yourself updated.

Do you have marketing tips?

A woman I know from my newspaper days has asked me to come speak to her creative writing class. I think it's going to just be a general info session, but I think she'd like me to focus a bit on marketing. I can tell them my experience, but I'd like to share what others have tried. Stuff that's worked and stuff that hasn't. If you have any tips or advice that students could use, would you leave me a comment?

Laying out my ambitious December goals

I've got a few ideas for more posts and I'll write those soon when I have a chance. But let's stick with the begging theme for now. Well, not so much begging as informing. I've got a couple sales goals for December. Thought that since I shared total sales last post I'd share sales goals this time.

Adding all my sales since March, I'm at 144 books overall. Not bad, but I like round numbers. I'd really like for this year to end with 200 books sold. That means I'd need to have, for me, a record month. I'd need to sell 56 books in December. Is it ambitious? Absolutely. But what else do I have to do? I still don't have a day job. Might as well pour some of the time I'm not using to look for a job into trying to sell books, right?

So you may see me pushing my books hard. Lots more tweets. Hopefully more interviews and guest posts that I'll be pushing you toward. It'll be whatever I can think of that might move some books.

And if you wanted to help me push the books, please do. Retweet my tweets if you follow me on Twitter. Leave a review at Amazon and Barnes and Nobleif you've read and liked either or both of my books. Host me if you have a blog. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm up to writing a few guest posts or doing interviews.

I'll try to keep you updated on how sales are going throughout the month,.

The post where I grovel

UPDATE: Sold two copies last night. Only six more needed to make the monthly goal. 

It's time for the end of the month begging post.

In the past I was shy about sharing numbers. Part of me was embarrassed. The other part was proud. My sales numbers have never been great. I'm OK with that now. They are what they are. I'm a virtually unknown writer. I didn't have an online following because of short stories. I didn't have a previous three-book deal with a publisher. I'm just a guy trying to make a go of the writing thing in a changing writing world. It was foolish to think they'd be anything other than what they are.

I added all my sales up earlier this month before I released REUNION. It's been nine months since I released CHASING FILTHY LUCRE, and it has sold 130 copies. Those aren't stellar numbers. I was hoping for more. I was hoping that it would take off. Go great guns. Out of control. But it didn't. Still, it's averaging more than 10 copies a month and that's not bad. I know there are authors out there who'd love to be able to say that. And I've met some great people and gathered some great reviews. Nothing less than four stars. That makes me happy. There are people who truly enjoyed the book. That feels good. Perspective. Perspective. I'm not doing that bad.

All that said, I did call this the begging post. So far this month we've sold 12 books total between REUNION and CHASING FILTHY LUCRE. I'd love to sell eight more before the end of the month. That would bring us up to 20 for November. For anyone who also earned a liberal arts degree, that means, basically, selling eight books on November 30. Is it possible? Absolutely. Eight isn't a big number. It's more than I've ever sold in a day, but not impossible.

If you are among those who haven't read either of my books, then help me out and buy one. If you've already read one, then buy the other. They are definitely different books, but I guarantee that if you liked one you'll like the other.

I've got all of your e-reader needs covered. You can find both books at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and at Smashwords. And there's even a print copy of CHASING FILTHY LUCRE at Amazon if that's more your speed.

Go get my newest, Reunion

I teased everyone with a new cover a few weeks ago. It was for my short story Reunion. It's the first in a series of stories featuring Jackson Cane. I've struggled with a way to describe what it is he does and finally settled on using the term I've been using informally since I've had him in my head. Cane's a member of the Freak Police. And to find out what that means you're just going to have to buy a copy of the story. It's available now at Smashwords and Amazon. It should be showing up on Barnes and Noble soon, so if you're a Nook user then check there later today or tomorrow.

And please let me know what you think. This is a bit of a departure for me, but a total blast to write. I'm already halfway through story two and am hoping to have it available very soon.

Sample Sunday: Chasing Filthy Lucre

I haven't participated in a Sample Sunday in a long time. Here's a little something from Chasing Filthy Lucre. Hope you like it. If you do, leave a comment. If you really like it then buy a copy. It's in all the usual spots. For direct links click the "Where to read me" tab at the top of the page.

 There was an older gentleman who spent his nights sitting in the lobby watching the people pass on the street and reading a book. He couldn't sleep and he'd rather be downstairs than up in his apartment. At least he told me that’s why I always saw him when I came in at night. A nice guy. Never said more than a few words to me.

“Good evening, Mr. Rexall,” he said when I’d come in late.

“Please,” I’d say, “call me Weber.”

“Sure thing, Mr. Rexall.”

That was it, our entire exchange. It always made me smile. He was there when I got home that night carrying my haul from Raul’s.

I climbed the stairs to my apartment. I sat the bags down in front of my door and fished in my pocket for my keys. Inside, I sat the bag from Raul's on the kitchen counter. If this were a few years earlier, I would have plugged in as soon as I was inside my apartment. The port in my arm would have itched, would have begged me to put it to use.

There was a wire straight from the wall, added as a convenience years before I moved in. Easy data access for anyone with a terminal. I’d had it converted to my own personal hot jack. Plug in. Heat up. Pass out.

Plugged into the feed, I could forget about life for a few minutes. The experience started as a tingle near the port where the wire connected to my arm. It started like something crawling under your skin but quickly turned to a burn that rushed across the entire body. For a few minutes it was uncomfortable. You wanted to pull off your skin. But, if you could wait -- if you could push through the hurt -- your body would settle into the rush of data that was assaulting every last nerve. You would calm. You couldn’t hear anything. You couldn’t think anything. You just were. For your time on the wire you didn’t have to deal with life in the present or remember life in the past. All of those things you’d seen or done were gone. They weren’t affecting you anymore. That was the appeal. That’s why so many soldiers were the first to abuse the technology.

When someone said they were "on the wire," the wire referred to was the one that ran from your port to your brain, not the one from the source to your port, although that’s what most people thought. It was an understandable confusion.

It was a technology developed by a team of Dutch doctors and scientists. Exactly how it worked I couldn’t tell you, but it’s made up of three parts.

There’s the port. It’s typically inserted into the arm, but really it could go anywhere. The older a person was the more discrete the location of their port. The younger, the more visible. Many kids were opting for a port in the neck. The thinking was that the shorter the distance from the port to the brain, the more intense the sensation. How much more intense the experience needed to be, I wasn’t sure.

The second element was the wire itself. It’s a fine piece of microfilament that ran from the port to the brain and the third element, the net.

A net, also made of microfilament, was woven into the different parts of the brain. The digital came into the port, ran along the wire, and then spread across the net and into the user's head.

The original applications were military. Soldiers were given their mission details with the port. They’d plug in at night and wake the next morning with their orders and all pertinent background information.

The original ports came with a governor that controlled the flow of data to the brain. Hackers cracked those soon after ports were approved for commercial use.

Mine was a military unit, first generation. I had it cracked in a small computer shop two blocks from base as soon as I was discharged. Done by a hack in a back room. Me laying on a table and him plugging a beaten up laptop into my port.

He punched some keys and I laid there and felt the flush of digital for the first time. It started with a tingle that ran up my arm and into my shoulder. It crossed over to my neck and then into my head. It became an intense heat that left me dizzy and light headed.

From my head, it ran down my chest, past my waist, and into my toes. For the first time I felt my head tip back and my mouth drop open. I could no longer think. Nothing was in my head. All the things I’d seen and done had been replaced by the heat of the data.

After thirty minutes and twenty bucks I was on the wire.

Autographed print copies available

I finally set up everything needed to sell autographed print copies of Chasing Filthy Lucre. It's the box over there at the top of the right column. So if you were waiting with bated breath, wait no more. Click on the "Buy Now" button. I'll send one your way.

Coming soon

A little sneak preview of something I've got planned for release soon. Hopefully before Thanksgiving. Should be 99 cents. It's a little different for me. No sci fi in this one but there is a bit of paranormal.This is the cover. Let me know what you think.

A modest request

I need your help. I'm very close to a sales goal for this month. It's not a big goal, but one that I'd love to meet. To do it I need to sell four more copies of Chasing Filthy Lucre by the end of the day tomorrow. It doesn't matter what kind of copy it is. Could be an e-book. Could be a print copy. Just as long as I sell four I'll make my goal.

I debated on whether or not I should share the number that I'm shooting for. The private side of me says no. It's a personal thing and in the end doesn't really matter. The prideful side of me also says no. It's a pretty small number. Almost embarrassingly small. So I've debated and my private side and prideful side have lost out. I'm going to do it. I'm going to share the number. It's 20. If I sell four more copies this month I'll hit 20 sales. And this will be the best month I've had since the spring. Even though it pales in comparison to many other authors, I'm excited.

So can you help? Can you buy a copy? Already have your copy? Then tell someone else about it. Help me make my modest goal. Needed links are below.

For a print copy click here: LINK
For a Kindle copy click here: LINK
For a Nook copy click here: LINK
For every other e-reader version, or a PDF, or a Word file click here: LINK

UPDATE: Two sales yesterday. Just need two more by the end of the night tonight, to make the goal.

UPDATE UPDATE: One more sale needed to hit the goal. Help me out, folks.

Get to know Court Merrigan *UPDATED*

I'm just now getting to know Court Merrigan. He joined a writers' critique group that I'm part of so I've read some of his fiction. But I didn't know anything about the man other than he's a fantastic writer. Read some of his stuff here. Then, when you're done reading his fiction come back and read the answers to the questions I've sent him. We talk short fiction. It's good stuff. And after reading this you're going to follow him on Twitter. Click here to do that.

First, tell us a little about you in under 200 words. How'd you get started writing?

There's a picture of me, 5 years old, writing my first little story.  My mom used to put together little books with cardboard covers and yellow-paper pages, sewn together and everything.  I remember from the very first stories I was able to read, wanting to write my own.

I wrote off and on for a long time, through high school, college, wandering around Asia; but I didn't get really serious about it until about 2004.  And I didn't start getting really serious - e.g., getting up at 4 o'clock to write - until 2005-ish.  

I recently read about some 16-year old girl who has a chapbook or something coming out and has already started college and wants to be in an MFA program before she can legally drink.  God, I would have broken my hands punching walls if I had tried to chain (as is necessary) myself to a desk any time before age 26.  

You said 'wandering around Asia.' What took you there? What kept you there? And what brought you back?

What took me to Asia was 22 years in Nebraska.  I was done with college and I just wanted out into the world.  Got a job teaching English in Japan and went about as far away from my homeland as I could go without starting to come back again.

What brought me back was my daughter.  We were living in a village in Thailand and I knew I couldn't send her to school in the Third World.  Someday she (and my son, who was born later, in the US), may choose to go cross the pond and live for a while on that side of their heritage, and that'd be wonderful.  But I felt it was my responsibility to bring them up here so they'll have that choice to make someday.  For lots of reasons, going from the US to Thailand is far, far easier than the reverse.

 

And what are you doing when you aren't writing?

At the day job at a community college.  Playing with my kids.  On FB and Twitter and the blog more than I should be, probably.  During the fall, watching the Cornhuskers on Saturdays.  Exercising. 

 Writers require a lot of endorphins and dopamine and you can't get it all from bourbon.  Exercise helps keep those flowing and you feel better the next morning.

I gallivanted around in my younger years, but I'm a pretty staid family man these days.  Mortgage and everything.  In bed by 10 at the latest.

Does your time in Asia affect your writing? If so, how?

Absolutely.  When I'm not writing about my rural homeland, I'm writing about Asia.  The experiences I had over there gave me an inexhaustible trove of material to work with.  (Not that you need to go to Asia or anywhere, really, for that.  Wasn't it Flannery O'Connor who said that anyone who's survived childhood has enough stories to last for life?)

I'm working on some stuff these days that mixes the two.  Imagining characters who look like my kids will twenty years from now, and then having bad things happen to them. 

What attracts you to short fiction?

The rush of finishing, I think.  The fact that when you start there's always a glaring light at the end of the tunnel.  

A novel can be such a slog.  I've written 3 of them.  (Want to see?)  Gearing up to write another, but I keep getting sucked into the gratification of keeping it short.

We swapped some messages on Twitter and you said you are moving from literary fiction to crime and pulp fiction. Why?

You know what Nabokov said: "You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style."

The older I get, the more I like stories.  Plot.  Forward progression.  Something besides beautiful sentences to keep me flicking through the pages.   Don't get me wrong. I like artful sentences strung together one after another.  I just want them to tell me a story.

I feel likewise in my own writing.  I want to tell a story.  To quote Brad Green in his intro to the PANK Crime Issue, "Whereas the literary story is often concerned with how characters react to a given situation, the [pulp story] is obsessed with showing us how we behave during the situation itself."  I agree with this wholeheartedly.  

I would say, though, that there's a difference between good pulp fiction and the formulaic potboilers put out by the James Patterson and Nora Robertsons or whoever of the world.  A story's no good if it's wrapped in turgid prose.  The sentences still have to sing.

What I'm writing now is story.  If it doesn't contribute to the forward narrative of said story, I delete it.  No subtext.  No symbolism.  Just story.  

 

Which is easier to write? I assume that many people would hear you're switching to pulp/crime fiction and they'd think it's because it's easier to write.

I don't think any good writing comes easily.  Emphasis on the good.  For me, it's all about mutilated drafts, dozens of them.  The process hasn't gotten any easier; it's just that the categories are different.  In some respects, writing pulp is a lot harder, because you can't hide limp-wristed character development and hackneyed plot lines behind pretty sentences.  

Literary fiction at its best moves you to a state of aesthetic bliss; pulp at its best keeps you riveted to the story.  Both are rare.

When you finish a piece of mediocre literary fiction, you're thinking, "So what?"  Finishing is like eating a whole bowl of cold oatmeal because you don't want to waste anything on account of the kids starving in Africa.  (Which may have something to do with why so few non-writers start such stories in the first place.)  

A mediocre piece of pulp, you're not likely to ever finish.  You'll start yawning and find a better way to spend your time.  All perfectly guilt-free.  Pulp that doesn't keep you entertained isn't doing its job, and that's how it should be.

Maintaining the fictive dream in the reader is a hard job to pull off in any genre, but it seems to me that it's harder when the reader has no qualms about looking away.  

I looked at your blog and your current acceptance rate is roughly 10 percent. I think someone who doesn't write would look at that number and say, "What's the point?" So, what is the point? How do you keep from getting discouraged?

An unknown writer like myself is paid in the currency of hope.  It only takes one after all, right?  The right magazine, the right editor, the right agent, the right Twitter contact, the right amalgam in the marketplace, the right google algorithm. 

The amount of luck required is outrageous.  

But thanks to the internet, we're living in a world where the supply of fiction vastly outweighs the demand.  Them's the facts.  I don't think you do yourself any favors by ignoring reality.  

I don't keep from getting discouraged.  I'm discouraged all the time. All the time.  Especially now that I've been writing a lot for a number of years, and success remains elusive.  Every time another rejection arrives from one of those prestigious, super-cool mags I lust to see my name in.  Every irretrievable day passing by that didn't see me get any worthwhile writing done.  

I always feel like I'm on the outside looking in.  Like all the real, successful writers are enjoying solitary parties in vast mansions of acclaim and prestige and money up on the hill, and I'm in my jackshack in the valley, one naked light bulb strung from the ceiling, that distant music tinkling through the warped tin roof.

Possibly I suffer under the delusion of the sunk cost fallacy.  But then that dionysian demon Hope raises her ravishingly hideous face, and it's back to the page I go.

 

What makes a good piece of short fiction?

If you read it all the way through in one setting.

How about flash fiction? It has so many different definitions, but, in general, what are your feelings on it? I know that, for me, if it gets too short I find it a little too sparse and the stories hard to follow.

I really like the form, myself.  But, like any other form, it has to be done well.  A thousand words or less is an excellent length to explore one incident or impression, maybe two.  Sort of like the Iambic tetrameter or tanka poetry, it enforces a certain discipline, an insistence that every word be pared down to its maximum meaning.  

It's a mystery to me why, in this Twittified and Facebooked era, flash fiction has not achieved more prominence outside writerly circles.  I suspect it's because we're all doing it wrong, somehow.  

  

Usually I ask for three essential books, but since we are talking short fiction here can you give us three essential pieces of short fiction. Pieces that either shaped who you are as a writer or just stuff you thought was really cool.

"Atomic Supernova", by Scott Wolven

"The Need," by Frank Bill

"Escape From Spiderhead," by George Saunders

"The Peony Garden," Nagai Kafu

 

What about some writers you think are underappreciated. Who's out there that more people should know about?

Writers who aren't nearly well-known enough:

Scott Wolven is my nomination for best unknown out there.  Why this guy isn't famous, Hollywood directors flocking to his door, editors stepping over dead bodies to get to him, is beyond me.  I wrote more about him here.

The British writer Danny Hogan wrote a cracking good novella called Jailbait Justice.

David Cranmer, editor of Beat To A Pulp, is single-handedly transforming the Western into a noir showpiece with his Cash Laramie & Miles Gideon series.

Google Matthew C. Funk and you can't go wrong.  Everything that guy writes crackles like a live wire.  

My friend Brad Green can elevate a sentence to Elysium in a single comma splice.  

Marc Horne wrote my favorite indie novel of all time, Tokyo Zero.  

Glenn Gray is also a doctor and therefore knows how to induce delicious willies.

Roxane Gay has a following among the internet literati, but on the strength of her writing she deserves more.  I think she's going to get it in due time.

 

What's up next for you? Anything coming up that we should look for?

I've got stories coming out next year in All Due Respect, Yellow Mama, Flywheel, and Necessary Fiction.  I'm also going to be in the Off The Record anthology put together by Luca Veste, and the upcoming inaugural Dirty Noir quarterly.

I'm also going to be editing a special Pulp Issue for PANK  that will come out next spring.  Subs are going to open next month, so send your best stories my way.