State of the author as Christmas draws near

 

I'm grateful to you, dear readers, for the encouragement many have provided over the past couple of years as I dealt with the fallout from a heart attack and two bouts with COVID-19.  They disrupted my writing very severely, but I've been on the mend and working hard.  As a result, no less than seven books are in the pipeline for the next year or so.  I've also, in recent months, been active in helping Miss D. edit, format and publish her latest two novels, "Blood, Oil and Love" and "A Perfect Day, With Explosions".  Both have been well received.

You may wonder how on earth I could write so many books, so quickly.  The answer is simple - they haven't been written quickly, but in spurts.  I found the additional medication I was taking really messed with my writing creativity, so that I couldn't focus on a project for long before I had to take a break and get my mind on other things.  As a result, I started books in a number of different genres - a Western, a Viking fantasy, space opera, military science fiction, and so on.  Depending on my mood and ability on any given day, I'd pick up one of them and write a few pages, then set it aside.  If my interest on a different day was piqued by something else, I'd pick another book and do the same.  I've thus ended up with several books that are more than half completed, and others that are coming along.  Now that I'm off the additional medications and able to focus properly on my writing once more, I'm working on completing them and publishing them.

I'll need your help in making a success of these books.  If a writer is out of the public eye for too long, he loses his "visibility" in the market.  Thanks to illness and related factors, that's where I am right now.  I'm going to have to re-establish market visibility - another reason for publishing several books in quick succession, because readers who liked one may be motivated to buy more and give them a try.  At any rate, that's what I hope will happen.  I'll ask your help in leaving honest reviews of my books, and mentioning them on your social media pages, etc. as they come out, so as to enhance their visibility.  If people don't know they're there, they won't buy them!  (Of course, if you don't like my writing, don't bother to mention them - that goes without saying.)

At any rate, the next (fifth) volume in my Ames Archives Western series, titled "Silver In The Stones", is well on the way to completion.  The cover is in preparation, based on this Frederic Remington drawing of a prospector at work.  (The original's in black-and-white;  this rendition is colorized.)

There are only a few thousand more words to be written.  I hope to publish it during the second half of November.

Also coming, although not necessarily in this order, are:

• The sixth volume in the Maxwell Saga, titled "Venom Strike".
• The third and final volume in the Laredo War Trilogy, titled "Knife To The Hilt".
• The first in a proposed trilogy of Civil War historical fiction naval novels, title as yet undecided.  This will be as accurate as I can make it from an historical perspective, because I'm tired of naval blood-and-thunder books that don't match up to the facts of the era.
• A novel (perhaps the first in a short series, perhaps stand-alone - I haven't decided yet) on space warfare in a "hard science" world (i.e. no faster-than-light travel, no handwavium about super-technologies, etc.).
• A "best of" compilation of posts from this blog, about which I asked you a few weeks ago.  There seems to be a fair amount of interest in it.
• A very practical, down-to-earth look at emergency preparations.  There's far too much emphasis in much of the available literature about "Buy this, and you'll be prepared!"  There's a lot more to it than spending money, and a lot can be done without spending much at all.  I'll try to focus on the latter, for the benefit of those of us (like yours truly) on a limited budget.

That's what's currently on the list, plus a couple of short stories for forthcoming compilations.  Seven books, no less, all currently in preparation.  If I appear short of breath sometimes, that's why!

Anyway, I'm off to write some more of the latest Ames chronicle.  I hope you'll like it when it's published next month (God willing).

Peter