A friend of mine hit me up on email last night, concerned because she hadn’t seen me around on the usual social media haunts or posting here at the bar. After reassuring her I wasn’t lying somewhere in a coma/abducted by aliens/locked up as a result of an unfortunate misunderstanding with law enforcement/dead, I realized I should probably stick my nose in and let everyone know what’s been going on that’s kept me away the last couple of weeks since the Barnes & Noble signing!
Upon my return from Vegas I got very busy, very fast. (And for those who keep tabs, you’ll know that’s saying something coming from me!) A friend of mine informed me a job opening had just come up in anticipation of a busy summer at a local geotechnical consulting firm. As I have five years’ experience in that field, he strongly suggested I go by and interview. I went in that Wednesday morning and was in my friend’s truck for a refresher course in site inspection that afternoon. Considering the dire financial straits I’ve been in for the last couple of months, this couldn’t have come at a better time, but like every other blessing it comes with a price, namely my time. Hence my lack of presence on the web of late.
In other news, Cedar City is gearing up for GrooveFest 2014, part of which is LitFest, which I helped organize. I’ll be presenting “Redshift,” one of my poems, at the event while sharing the stage with some excellent poets, including Utah’s Poet Laureate, Lance Larsen. Afterward there will be a meet-and-greet, where I’m hoping to sell a few paperback copies of Dusk!
Meanwhile, Dusk: Tides of Astaroth is set to release on July 3rd from Changeling Press. I’m excited about this, because I’m eager to see this first story arc concluded so I can move on to the next. My work on Mindblade of late has mostly consisted of scrawling down some skeletal scenes and a few quippy one-liners I intend to incorporate the next time I get a decent amount of time to sit down at the computer uninterrupted. When that will be, who knows, but I’m hoping after GrooveFest things will relax a little and I’ll have a bit more structure in my daily and weekly routine.
For fans of my Angels, they’re very much on my mind of late. I’m deep in final edits for Soulbearer, which incorporates all the material previously released as “Angels Would Fall,” “Angel of the Morning,” and Angels Cry plus a large amount of extra material that I had originally intended to put out as the sequel to Angels Cry, Angel of Death. The result is a full-length novel that tells the story of what happened to Azrael after the events of Angels Cry and just how far he’s willing to go to avenge himself upon his wayward, erstwhile lieutenant. I have yet to set a release date, because I have a ton of work to do still, including cover art and initial promotion, before it’s even close to ready. Stay tuned for deets!
Also, my werewolf fans are about to get a bone thrown their way as well! (*raises eyebrow* Yes, I meant that in the PG sense, but if you insist on wallowing in the gutter, far be it from me to stop you. C’mon in, the water’s fine!) I’m working on the final 5k words of “Silver and Air,” which was intended as the sequel to “Dancing On Flames.”
What am I going to do with The Wildsworn, you ask? Well, I’ve been looking at a bunch of my orphan stories and trying to figure out how best to do something with them. “Ancient Magic” is still very much a perennial request, even though it’s out of print, and in considering how best to proceed, I decided to roll together some of my favorite stories into one omnibus volume. After some intensive re-editing and tweaking, I hope to have the whole thing ready to go to market by the end of the summer, incorporating a couple of M/F stories, two M/M stories (the Wildsworn, naturally), and two F/F stories into the mix. I’m still working on a title for this one, but I’m willing to entertain suggestions. Put in a comment and tell me what you think!
Just to add to the fun, I also have Tripping Over Someone Else’s Shoelaces, my first attempt at a literary novel, to complete and Everyday Angels, the second anthology for WOCA, to finish putting together. The good news is Everyday Angels is largely done. I just have a little bit of work to do on the cover art before I put the whole thing together and send it off to press. With a little luck it will be out by the end of August as well. This is going to be an interesting one, because the focus is shifting away from child sexual abuse and zeroing in more on mental and physical abuse. Of course I’ll have a story in there as well, “.271,” about a baseball player coming to grips with the death of his father and the realization that he doesn’t have to be what he was told all his life he must be, but we’ve got a really great lineup of stories from some truly excellent authors who’ve all been extremely kind and patient with me and my unpredictable schedule for far too long. Expect another update on Everyday Angels within the next two weeks!
So where does this leave me for the moment? As usual, short on sleep and far too busy to be consistent with good mental health, but hey, writers are a crazy lot to begin with. With so many great things on the horizon and so much exciting work on my plate, I’m anxious to get on with it and start making things happen. If I’m not around as much as I should be, I apologize…but I promise my silence will be well worth the wait!
Thank you, dear reader, for coming by. I’ll look forward to seeing you again soon!
Until next time,
Best,
J.S. Wayne
