"You have interesting ideas." Piers Anthony
Fiction News
The Tales Started [NEW]
December 2007 - I've finally begun a novel very important to me for reasons I'll skip for now, but let's just say it covers many things I spent over a decade creating. I'm very excited to be writing it at last. I've already finished one story, "Effigy for Hermon the Obstacle", with two others in the works. With 28 stories, it will probably take a year just for that, plus the frame story surrounding them, but since I've got 14 outlines laying around, I need to just get these stories told. I'll most likely start another novel after I get that far into this one. I just haven't made up my mind what it should be yet. I've certainly got novel outlines laying around.
The Insult-a-lon Finished [NEW]
September 2007 - A long time ago I started a dripping satire called The Insult-a-lon and finally put in some effort to finish it up this month. I'll be trying to get it published somewhere, so until then I'll keep it under wraps but hope to publish it here soon.
The Quest Finished [NEW]
September 2007 - The Quest is now finished - both the first and second drafts, which means writing and then editing. I cut out about 10,000 words in between to arrive at 94,000 words. I had to change main characters half way through, which is no easy feat, but it was definitely for the better! I'll be looking for an agent this fall. In the meantime I'll be working on short stories both for The Tales and, well, not for The Tales. What's the difference? Some stories are not really fantasy and don't belong in there, such as The Insult-a-lon and Effigy for Herman the Obstacle.
The Quest Half Finished
November 2006 - Writing of The Quest has gone very well and reached 45,000 words out of an intended 100,000 by late November. I was hoping to be done by now but that was probably unrealistic due to other pursuits. This is the first book I've written without planning out every detail. It's nice in a way, since I'm free to invent as I go along, but sometimes I get stuck, too, because I haven't decided on how something should happen.
Not much has been done on The Tales as a result of keeping my focus on this, but such is life.
Novel The Quest Started
June 2006 - Things keep changing on the fiction side of things, but at least something is happening. For many reasons, I have returned to ficiton after an unwanted but necessary two year break (more like three years, since the last nine months was an agent pursuit). The new novel, tentatively titled The Quest, is now underway with the prologue and first chapter written. More details are on the novels page, but the tone and approach of this book is different. It is designed to be a fast write, fast read, fast sell, fun, light, and easy. This book is not set on my fictious world. In the spirit of speed, I'm hoping to be done this year and have re-prioritized my life to make time. Short stories for The Tales will also be done when time permits.
The Fiction Is On Hold
March 2004 - With the music album nearly done, the fiction career must regrettably be on hold until I have more time. As an indie artist, I must do all areas of the music career personally. If you'd like to help, you can join the web team.
Writing of the First Two Novels Done
August 2003 - It took a couple years, but the first two Evermore novels are finally complete. The pursuit of agents has begun, but it can take months, so stay tuned.
Fiction FAQs
Did Piers Anthony really write the quote about you? Yes. I had written to Piers (a very well known author) about some publishing issue to get an opinion, and he was nice enough to write back and also visit my site, where he read four ghost stories from a novel I had just finished up. He was nice enough to answer my questions and then offered, 'You have interesting ideas'. That's pretty cool coming from him, so I asked if I could quote him and he agreed.
Are you published? No, due to the fiction's long and often strange history. A new novel, The Quest, is now done and will result in a new publication effort in 2007. Prior to this, the first two Evermore books were completed by August 2003, with the first pursuit of publication following, but that was put on hold for various reasons, including some detailed re-work needed (I do not have time for that now).
Do you have other books planned? Yes, quite a few. The Quest can be expanded easily. There's a book of connected short stories and at least one trilogy, plus several stand alone novels. Some of these books have connected stories while others don't. All but The Quest occur in the same world at roughly the same time frame. After a decade creating a fantasy setting, I intend to make frequent use of it.
What genre do you write? I call it Fantasy Literature, which the publishing world would probably call commercial genre fiction with literary appeal. Literature is generally defined as a class of writings distinguished for beauty of style or expression, as in the case of Edgar Allan Poe, an author famous for his style with words, not just his subjects. Also, literature often merges observations about life into a unified story, as opposed to action-oriented adventure (like summer blockbuster action movies, for example). Fantasy Literature is the fantasy genre with more emphasis on well-crafted language, character, story, philosophy, and art. It is a merging of literature with fantasy, and in this sense includes the normal fantasy style within its broader scope.
The Quest, however, is light fantasy, meaning it is less weighty and more lighthearted. It also uses traditional beings like elves, dwarves, and dragons and is designed to be fun.