Okay, so clearly I dropped the ball.

Two new releases in 2011, eh?  That’s what I said I was going to do.  It’s what I wanted to do.  It’s not what happened.

This past summer I got caught up in a whirlwind of work, book covers, and ultimately found myself not doing anything on the side.  The day job is draining enough, and to come home and write only for a few minutes at a time before I was distracted with other things was frustrating to say the least.  During the summer I had started a sci-fi novel (Largely inspired by Steve Umstead’s awesome Gabriel series).  I had everything in my head, I had the high points of the story, the overall plot, and just dug right in.  Before I knew it, I had over 40k words.  Then two things hit me.  I really do suck at writing sci-fi (and I’m talking about massive future sci-fi on another planet, not a few decades into the future on earth sci-fi), and also realized that I was telling the reader what was happening, rather than showing them.  In essence, I was kind of writing a screenplay rather than a novel.  Even though I felt like the story wasn’t bad, and there were some scenes that I was particularly pleased with, I became discouraged and shoved it aside for a while. 

Late Summer/early Fall I started getting the bug again, I needed to get back into writing.  I thought I would start back up on the sci-fi project and work through it.  That’s when Lora Jo Bennett said a few words to me that I wasn’t really expecting. 

“We’re having a baby”

So there you have it.  LJ and I are expecting our first baby (a little girl) in late June.  We are very excited and blessed to be having a little one, and are looking forward to it.  So obviously I realized a lot of ducks had to get in a row.  Mainly, I started doing what I could to get some side work to help prepare for our new bundle of joy.  I’ve been working a lot of hours at home on some freelance work to help the savings account get a little bigger each month. 

So what does the future have in store for me?  More writing, I’m almost certain of it.  I love playing and making video games, but I can honestly say that in my nearly a decade of making games, I’ve seldom felt the level of satisfaction and excitement that I experienced daily while writing Loose Ends and the unfinished story.  Whether I am doing personal art, or art for a video game, it just doesn’t have the same impact on me.  I really enjoy doing art, but as a game artist I am constantly tangled up in restrictions (whether technical, styles, or peer opinions).  When I write, I write for me, and hope that the story I’ve told is enjoyable for everyone else.  There’s nothing holding me back on it.  And when I finish, I get to do the cover art, so I get a little bit of that world, too 🙂

So what stories can you expect from me in the future?  Honestly, I have no clue.  I have several ideas I am toying with, one is a post apocalyptic/techno thriller, one is a near future murder mystery, and the other would be re-purposing my sci-fi story I had started into a post apocalyptic setting.  It could be anything. 

So wish me luck!  I’ll do my best to be on Twitter a bit more.  I will likely be staying away from my Facebook page for a while still (LoraJo and I both canceled our personal facebook accounts a while ago, and I just don’t have any desire to get back to it).  But I do hope to get another release out soon, maybe with a few late nights, before our little girl arrives.

One last thing, I know I’ll get a few grumbles about this, but I have decided not to further the story to Loose Ends.  It’s not the type of story I want to move forward with, and will focus my efforts on new adventures.  So as for the ending of Loose Ends, it looks like you’ll have to draw your own conclusion. I couldn’t be happier with that. 🙂

Until next time.

AJ