Back From the Dead!

So, this is just a little post for some general info on Peacemaker and other sundries. A FAQ, if you like. (though, in all fairness, FAQ sounds like you’re saying something rude.  Just sayin’.)

Is this a new book?
No.  Peacemaker is the same book that was published by Intermix back in 2014.  However, it was only published in ebook format at that time, and so the print version is a new beastie.

If this isn’t really new, why should I buy it?
If you haven’t read it yet, then duh, buy it.  If you HAVE read it in ebook, technically, there’s no reason for you to buy it again.  However, if you want a print copy, this is your first shot at that.  AND… There is a small teaser at the end of it, the first chapter of the sequel.  So that at least is new material.

When will the sequel be out?
I have no idea.  I haven’t written more than the first couple of chapters of it.  My major goal at this moment is to get JJD6 written and out, and THEN start on the Peacemaker sequel.  Ideally, I could have both JJD6 and AW2 out next year, probably one toward the beginning and one toward the end.  (Don’t hold me to that.  Life happens.)

Where can I get the print version?
You will be able to order through Amazon, as always, and as part of my newest endeavor, your local bookstores can also order copies in.  (Not just a copy for you personally, but ones to have on the shelf!)  Please please PLEASE make sure that your local bookstore knows about it.  I am one person, I do not have a huge publicity department, and that’s where I rely on you!

Where can I get signed copies?
I’m working on this.  Not only for Peacemaker, but for all of my Pirate Ninja Press books.  Ideally, I’d like to partner up with one of the local indie stores here in KC to be able to provide that service, but it’s a work in progress.  HOWEVER…  Because my books are now “order-able” for bookstores, this also means that I COULD do signings again, in bookstores.   I haven’t arranged anything like that, because frankly I’m scared to death to approach these people and have them laugh at me.  But give me time.

I want you to come sign books at MY store, how do we make this happen?
If you have a connection at your local bookstore, by all means, mention it to them and have them reach out to me if they would be willing to host a signing. (kari.stewart21@gmail.com) My travel budget isn’t huge right now, but I am totally willing to see what I can do.

If you have any other questions, feel free to leave them in a comment at the bottom of this post, or even email me if you like.  Hate mail & sexual harassment will be graded and ridiculed publicly.

More Ingram & Other Pleasantries

Tada!!!

All four of my self-published books are now available on Ingram.  This means that your local bookstores & libraries should be able to order them with no problem.  However, this means that YOU have to go ask them to!

If they need specific ISBNs, here they are:

A Snake in the Grass - 9780997950410
A Line in the Sand - 9780997950427
Second Olympus - 9780997950403
The Music Box Girl – 9780997950496

Also, Peacemaker’s official re-release will be on November 1st, but it should be available for pre-order well before then.  I’ll keep you posted on that one!  I’ve seen the rough draft of the cover art, and it is swoon-worthy.  It makes me really want to write the other two books in that trilogy, just so I can see what covers the amazing Robin Ludwig comes up with.

And speaking of writing.  Now that I seem to have the administrative portion of self-pubbing caught up for the moment, I really need to get back to writing.  JJD6 is on my agenda, as is AW2 (the Peacemaker sequel).  And at some point, I should really write something new to get to my long-suffering-but-amazing agent.  I’ve dabbled all summer, but nothing has really taken hold of me.  Hoping I can turn this latest rush of book energy into writing energy.

Ingram and You

Part of me wants to try to do this like some cheesy 50's health class movie. "Ingram and your body..." But in the interest of time (and sanity)

Most of you (I hope) saw me announce that The Music Box Girl is now available through Ingram. And you may be thinking "But MBG has been out for a while, what does this mean?"

The very short answer, for most of you, is nothing.  For the longer answer, read on.

Ingram is a part of publishing that is largely invisible to the average reader. They are a book distributor & printer. When you buy a book at a B&N or indie store, it most likely got there via Ingram.

You may say "but wasn't Createspace already printing and distributing your books?" Yes! Good question. The difference is that Ingram is the supplier that most bookstores and libraries order from. See, Amazon (Createspace) is a direct competitor of other bookstores, so they don't want to order from someone who is actively trying to put them out of business.

There are other things that also make Ingram preferable, involving wholesale ordering prices and the ability to return books that don't sell, but that's probably a bigger topic than I intend to cover in this Cliff's Notes version.

So, back to the question. What does this mean? It means that MBG can now appear on library and bookstore shelves. It means that someone could be browsing a bookstore and pick up my book and think "Hey, this looks cool." And just like that, I could have a new fan.  It also means that I can do in-store book signings much easier, since the stores can actually order books to have on hand. My hope is that we (my family and I) will be able to travel more in the next few years and get to places where folk might want to see me.

"That's fantastic! How can I help?"  I'm so glad you asked! The thing that will do the most good is to tell people. Ask your local indie store to order copies in. Request the book from your local libraries. Let them know that Second Olympus and the JJD books will be coming soon in the same format. Get the word out, folks!  Help me, Obi-Wan. You're my only hope.

Also remember that, before the year is out, Peacemaker will be re-released, in print for the very first time. This too will go through Ingram as well as my other channels. Tell the world!

Jesse, The Music Box Girl, and More

Thanks to everyone who made Jesse James Dawson’s birthday so awesome!  It’s nice to have days like that where I remember that there are people who love him as much as I do.  Make sure to go out and leave a review on Amazon and/or B&N when you’re done reading!  If you didn’t like it, feel free to say so! Every review matters.

Once you reach the end of the book, I’m sure you’ll notice that I’ve included the first chapter of something else, called The Music Box Girl.  This will be the next project I’m self-publishing, and I hope to have it out sometime in April.  It’s already written, and fairly polished, but I’m wanting to take my time with the print copy design on this one.  Trying to get fancy!

AND

I promised other good news, and while the above is all good news, that wasn’t what I was referring to.

Some of you may have noticed that Peacemaker has disappeared from all sales channels.  (It’s okay, I’ll wait here while you go verify, but I promise, it’s gone)  This is actually a very good thing!  Intermix, the original publisher, has reverted the rights to Peacemaker to me, and I am now free to re-release it, and in a PRINT version this time!

Not sure my timing on this one, since I want to get MBG settled first, but before summer, Peacemaker will be available again in a shiny new edition, and in print for the very first time!  I’ll keep you posted on dates.  And yes, this will most likely lead into me finally writing the sequels to Peacemaker in the near future.

I feel like this year is going to be a great year!

The Giant Gaping Hole in My Head

Yesterday was a momentous day for me.  First off, Peacemaker released, and if you haven’t downloaded it yet, why not?  You’re going to make Ernst cry.

Why do you want to make the jackalope cry??  What kind of monster are you?

Second, I finally finished JJD4.  It’s not really a first draft. It’s more what I call an ugly draft.  I’ll mess with it for a few more days, and then I’ll probably send it out to my Beta Slaves this weekend.  (If this means you, brace yourselves, it’s incoming).  While they’ve got it, I’ll probably be pricing some editing services, as well as cover artists, to try and find some folk that I can work with (and can afford).  I’m desperately wanting to do this one without running a Kickstarter, so financial stuff has to be considered.  What this ultimately means is that we’re still a few months out from you, my awesome readers, being able to see it, but it’s closer!  It’s so much closer.  I’m still shooting for this summer, at some point.  I’ll keep you posted.

However, finishing a book always puts me in a weird mood for a few days, and I thought I’d blog about it. (As one does about such things.)  I actually wanted to do this post when I finished writing The Musicbox Girl, but couldn’t wrap my head around everything that I wanted to say before the feeling just faded away and I kinda lost what I’d wanted to do.  So, you get it now, hopefully while all my thinks are still freshly thunk.

Completing a novel feels great.  Heck, for me, completing a grocery list feels pretty damn life affirming.  Anyone who has ever tried to write anything knows that there is a satisfaction to coming up with a coherent beginning, middle and end, no matter if you’re writing a novel, a short story, or a dirty limerick.  (Love me some dirty limericks)  You have done SOMEthing.

But the part that gets to me, every single time, is this profound sense of loss I feel.  Suddenly, all of the scenes and lines and people that I’ve been living with in my head for months are gone.  You have no idea how long some of the things you read have been percolating in my gray matter (multiple years, in some cases).  And once it’s on paper, once it’s brought to life, it’s just…gone.  I have a giant, novel-shaped hole in my brain. 

Part of me has to wonder if this is what it’ll feel like when kiddo grows up and moves out of the house.  You spend all this time, tending and nurturing something, and then suddenly it has a life of its own, and it doesn’t need you anymore.  Yeah, that’s the way it’s supposed to be, and you’re happy, but for at least a little bit, you’re also suddenly lonely.  There’s a genuine feeling of mourning.

Now, this giant gaping hole won’t last forever.  I think of it like a foot print in wet soil.  Slowly, the water seeps back in and fills up the emptiness.  Already, I can feel my plans and plots for my MBG revision seeping in there.  Soon, the hole in my brain will be taken up with that novel, and once I finish revising that, then another novel will seep its way in.  And another after that, and another, ad infinitum.  (Hopefully)

So the loneliness and loss don’t last very long, especially if I’ve got other projects loudly demanding attention.  But for just a few days, finishing a novel is a bittersweet victory.  So long, Jesse & Axel and the rest of you crazy kooks.  I’ll see you again in a few months.

As The Year Turns

And what a year it's been.

I'm looking back on all my grand plans, trying to figure out if I should be disappointed in myself for not meeting all my goals, or satisfied with what I DID get done.

Suffice to say, I wanted to be done with Jesse #4 by now.  I'm not.  The last two months has been a total wash, though I will say that I think I've made a brainstorming breakthrough and I'll be starting back up with the writing again probably as soon as I finish this post.  I'm so very close, if I can just get over this little bump.  I know how it ends, I just have to get there.

I fully admit, my writing was a victim of stress in other areas of my life.  I know that I've mentioned my Real Job(tm) before.  Well, for the last....oh, probably two years, if I'm being honest...I've not been happy with the Real Job(tm).  In fact, I've been scrambling to get clear of there.  Sadly, I'm not in a position where writing full time is feasible, financially, so getting clear of one job requires a new job.  And in the industry where I work, that's easier said than done right now.

However, over the last three months, I managed to apply/interview/finally get hired at a new place!  I'm simultaneously thrilled and terrified.  I mean, I worked at my old job for eight and a half years.  It's been a while since I had to get all dressed up and go make new friends.  But it'll be fine.  It has to be.  At the very least, it can't be any worse.

So, last day at the Old Job was yesterday, and my first day at the New Job is Monday.

New Job schedule is slightly different (Old Job started at 7 a.m., New Job starts at 8:30 a.m.), but I think I'm going to parlay that into some early morning writing time.  I recall that when I was working on The Musicbox Girl, my Saturday mornings were very productive.  No one in the house is up, it's quiet, I'm not exhausted...  It sounds worth a try.

Also, I find it very poetic that the winter days were getting darker right up until I quit the Old Job, and now when I start the New Job, the days will be getting lighter.  Happy Solstice, everyone!

So.  Goals for the new year:

January - Finish JJD#4, get it out to betas.  I'm about 30K words from the end of a first draft.  Once the holidays are past, I'm going to buckle down and knock this thing out.

January 21st - Peacemaker release.  Advance reviews are trickling in so far, and people seem to like it!  This makes me happy.  It's a fun little story, not intended to change the world, and I hope people enjoy it.  I should probably come up with some promotion events centered around that, but honestly I'm a bit tapped out of ideas given the absence of actual physical copies.  So if anyone has a thing they want me to do, let me know!

February/March - I will be revising The Musicbox Girl per my Lovely Agent's advice.  Kinda looking forward to getting my hands back into this story.  I will also be hopefully assembling beta reader notes on JJD#4 and once MBG is done, go through the Jesse book again.

April - Find an editor & cover artist for JJD#4.  My actual release date for that book will depend on deadlines for these two things.  Starting to look like a summer release for the book, which is apt, since the first three always came out in summer.

Rest of the Year - I want to start outlining/drafting Arcane West #2 (a sequel to Peacemaker).  I also want to start working on a new project that has been driving me nuts called Valkyrie, Inc.  It'll be a little different than some of my other stuff, but it feels like it's going to be fun and I'm excited about it.

Hoping that I can get MBG into a shape where Lovely Agent will want to start subbing it.  She also has Muse to read, and I'm hoping to find out if she wants to try subbing that too, or if I'll be trying to self-pub that one.  Also hoping to make a decision on whether or not to self-pub Night of Fire and Ash, but if I did that, I'd officially have three series going at once, and that way lies madness.  So that one's going to take a bit of thinking.

And of course, once JJD#4 is done, I need to move on to #5.  There will be six Jesse books in the end, and I'm very devoted to finishing the series.  It's just something I need to do at this point.


As we've seen, my best laid plans often go awry, but I like having a starting point from which to veer off dramatically.

Happy Winter-Holiday-Event-of-Your-Choice, and may the New Year be fabulous for us all!