12/31/2003

Welcome to New Year's. Thanks for all the kind words and disturbed stares in regards to our Xmas card. Now is where I talk about 2004.

Right now, I can tell you that our 2004 slate definitely contains both Magnificent Desolation, the previously mentioned short story anthology, as well as The Sunday Before You, my next poetry chapbook.

The former is currently in the final editing stages. I'm one story away from being able to send it out to advanced readers, then we'll complete editing and send it on to be published.

Once that's done, the poetry chapbook hits. I'm looking at a limited edition run not unlike Love Letters, somewhere between fifty and seventy-five copies.

There will probably be more titles as the year progresses, but right now those are the only two that are set in stone. Although a slew are in the works.

So there you have it. Suspense is over, go out and party safely. See you back here next year.

-Widge

12/24/2003

Okay, so it's Christmas Eve. So to celebrate, here's what One Tusk has in lieu of a card.

Special moment to say thanks to Greg Screws and Adrian Gibson over at the ABC affiliate in my hometown for letting me show up and plug Needcoffee and the novel.

Happy holidays, to all our mad weasel friends. I know I haven't been keeping people posted on what's happening, but what can I say? I figure you know by now to check Needcoffee for the latest. I'll be back around New Year's to announce our 2004 slate.

-Widge
Music can keep you sane during the holidays.

7/26/2003

Do you ever have those moments where you hate your brain? I do.

Case in point. As I work on Desolation, I've been reading through all of my stories again, making last minute cosmetic changes as I try to heave all of this towards publication. For the most part, I've been surprised at how pleased I've been with all of my little children, as some of them are a bit old. I fully expected to get in there and figure out that I was even more of an idiot than I had previously believed.

However, there's one...I won't tell you which one, though, and there's two reasons for this. First is that I might hurt its feelings. Second is that when Desolation does hit I don't want you flipping to it and saying, "Wow. It still sucks."

So I was thinking of pulling the story altogether. Seemed like a shame, since the core idea was a good one, but c'est la guerre and all that, it's--

Pling. The brain.

I instantly thought of how to rewrite the story so that nothing really changed as far as the actual plot went, but it would be a whole lot better and read like it was written by...you know, a guy who actually knows how to write. Normally I don't go back and revisit things, but it just all makes sense to me now.

So I hate my brain. Damn, stupid brain. Like I needed anything else to write these days.

-Widge
Overwhelmed.

7/6/2003

I changed my mind. I can do that, you know. "With Such Permanence As Time Has," I think, will be in the collection after all, because the more I work on it the more I see it fits in with the themes that I'm playing around with--this, despite the fact that it's probably the only piece of fiction without a fantastical element to it. So be it. The other short piece I will probably finish in time for inclusion is something called "The Excavation," which should be an interesting bookend to...another story in the collection.

Oooh, he's being so mysterious. Yes, well. What can I say? All of that is coming along, so is the next poetry chapbook. Strangely enough, while I was combing through my piles of stuff I found that I had more material worth keeping than I had originally thought. This, of course, means that The Sunday Before You has entered its gestation period. No idea how long it will take me to finish it or prepare it, though--especially since I really would like to write the planned follow-up piece to "Requiem," which is entitled "Dies Irae." But we'll see how that comes along.

So the good news is that things are happening, albeit slowly. Be aware that soon, quite soon hopefully, Mystics will enter a "second printing." So if you're one of those collector type people, you might want to order a copy now.

-Widge
Currently on his fifth wind.

5/28/2003

Hmmm, he disappeared again, must be working on stuff. Yes, it's true.

Working on Book #3 to come out of One Tusk--a book that's not mine. Did some editing and sent some comments back to the author, so hopefully we'll see some stuff come out of that.

Book #4 right now is my short story collection, Magnificent Desolation. We're closing to being ready to roll out the short story collection than I thought. As it stands right now, we've got around 175 pages of book that are one final edit away from being done. The latest short story, "Room 814," I completed over the weekend. The other short story I was going to add to the existing collection, "With Such Permanence As Time Has," is so completely and utterly different from everything else in the collection I'm going to save it for the time being. All that remains is that final edit and for me to decide if two other short stories which have re-reared their ugly heads in my brain are going to get finished and included or not. And then I have to write an introduction and afterword and we're done. Amazing.

For those who have asked when the next poetry collection is coming out, the answer is: I have no idea. The bits for it are coming slow but steady. I do have a title, though: The Sunday Before You. I might work on it further between Desolation and the next novel.

But suffice to say, it's all happening. We're even listed on Amazon now. Check this action out. Make sure you click the "Used & New" section and buy directly from Booksurge. Amazon marks everything up 1012%, so we're just trying to help you out. This also means that Borders has the book available for order as well, so you brick and mortar people can be happy. As I've always said, I could care less where you buy the book--just so long as you grab it and read it.

So that's it for now, but that's plenty. Other Secret Projects going on behind the scenes; hopefully we can talk more about those in the future.

-Widge
Who's slept one hour in the past thirty-six.

4/14/2003

Well, tremendous thanks are in order for the people at both Barnes & Noble locations from this weekend: the Jones Valley store in Huntsville, Alabama and the store in Norcross, Georgia. In Huntsville, we pretty much went through two shipments of books in two hours; I had enough left to give the store four signed copies and then take one home to give to somebody else for a review copy. So we were very pleased about this.

In Norcross, I gave a little talk (actually more like a rambling, non-sensical diatribe, to be accurate) about self-publishing poetry in the 21st Century. Ostensibly, this was for National Poetry Month, but it's just another attempt by myself to become the John the Baptist of the self-publishing movement. I figure I've got the hair for it. Anyway, thanks to everyone who came out for that as well.

Have some more of these appearances in the works. Farther away from here, in fact. So as those happen, I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, it's back to editing some things and trying to get ready to publish something else. One thing, of course, is the collection of stories. The other might just be the first book to come out of One Tusk that I have nothing to do with. So I'm pleased about that as well.

More soon.

-Widge
Burying another weekend.

4/10/2003

Okay, it's official, I'm turning off the sign for Love Letters. Officially sold out of the chapbook. Now, for those of you stragglers who reserved one and never responded about picking it up and I eventually had to sell your copy out from under you--you know who you are--the book will be reprinted at some point in the future. Just not in this format. This was always supposed to be a limited handmade first edition. So there you have it.

Sounds like the appearance in Norcross this Sunday, the 13th, is going to involve some manic poetry games for National Poetry Month. So that should be amusing if nothing else. No idea what's going to happen. A misanthrope goes out amongst people to promote himself and his work--sounds almost like a sitcom on Fox, doesn't it?

That's depressing.

Anyway, Huntsville on Saturday, Norcross on Sunday. If you have questions, ask them now via e-mail because I'm going to be on the dead-run a lot.

-Widge
I love the smell of freshly printed books in the morning.

4/2/2003

Some of you have written wondering why you're having trouble ordering the books from brick and mortar stores. Behold, after much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments, I have the answer.

Apparently, BookSurge, the company that technically serves as the distributor for Three Moons Media, of which One Tusk is an imprint, was not setup properly on the book as a distributor. Hence, distribution is problematic. This has since been corrected in our Books in Print entry, so that should propagate out thusly.

Boys and girls, there's your self-publishing tip for the day.

For those of you who are showing up at this website because you received a hopefully well-targeted postcard about my Huntsville appearance--hi. Plenty of good seats still left here on the site. Please everyone, scoot towards the middle and make room. Thanks.

-Widge
Who thinks that if it was easy, then everybody would be doing it.

3/29/2003

Looks like I have two appearances ready to roll, back to back, at two separate Barnes & Nobles. This, as you can imagine, I consider to be quite cool.

First, on April 12th, I'm going to be participating in a "Local Authors Festival" at the Jones Valley Barnes & Noble in my hometown of Huntsville, Alabama. There will be twenty published authors from across Alabama at this thing--quite an array, if you ask me. I'm sure it will be quite the hoot. Starts at 11:30am, with questions to the panel of authors at 12:15pm and then a signing from 1pm till 2pm. If you want more info, check out the PDF I created of their flyer here.

Next, on April 13th, at the Barnes & Noble in Norcross, Georgia, I'm the local poet leading the charge in their day to promote National Poetry Month. 3pm that Sunday, there's going to be some Q&A on poetry and getting published and whatnot, then an open mic poetry reading. So that should be very interesting.

I've been working on some other Projects that must exist in the shadows for right now, hence my lack of updates here. But I will get some kind of "tour schedule" page in place, along with a list of places where you can buy One Tusk books.

-Widge
From an undisclosed location where they actually have Bawls and dnL in stores. Rock.

2/7/2003

Amazingly, you can now order a copy of Mystics from your local brick and mortar Borders store. Granted, it's a special order, and they say it will take four to six weeks to process (somehow I doubt that), but the fact is, it's there.

The only thing I can figure is that the time I've spent fiddling with Books in Print jarred something loose. That, or it really does take four months to get processed into bookstores. I never did get a completely satisfactory answer.

We still don't have the Barnes & Noble issue straightened out, and they're extremely non-helpful. BookSurge, who is handling the printing of these things for Three Moons Media, has their hands tied. So for those of you who were waiting on a real bookstore to go and order one, knock yourselves out. As more B&M stores come online and make the book available, I'll let you know.

Now...bear in mind, Borders Online doesn't have the book because they go through Amazon--and for some strange reason, the Amazon account I ordered isn't active yet.

It's a good thing I'm having so much fun with this, otherwise I'd just commit sepukku right here and now.

-Widge
Going to the fridge for another Red Bull

1/1/2003

More news as we embark on this terrifying journey that is 2003.

First, I've confirmed that Mystics is indeed listed in Books in Print. I can't remember if I've mentioned this before--and I'm too exhausted/lazy to trudge through previous entries to see if this is old news--but basically, the way I understand it, you're in Books in Print or ain't nobody nowhere that can order you. So we're in, the only question is when the hell will people get an updated copy of BiP so that you can walk into your local brick and mortar store to special order a copy? No idea, hopefully my investigations this week will bear fruit.

Now, our current plans for this year are to, of course, finish the audiobook for Mystics. It's slow going what with trying to get the actual book pushed. Then, later in the year, Magnificent Desolation will mark my first short story collection. There will be stories that have appeared here, appeared in a few publications, and a brand new story that's about 90% finished.

There'll be more, and I should very shortly have a couple of appearances on tap to let you know about.

Life has just begun to get interesting. And sleep has only begun to be ignored.

-Widge
Reeling in the years