Finally got this one out there, back to the folks at EDGE for their consideration. I'd been using this one to try and leverage an agent, but no dice. I suspect that since I don't have much of a presence in the publishing world, I'm not that attractive to agents.  So I've started a much more intensive blitz for Silent Manifest and Beltrunner (just set up a signing in February, for example) and will do the same for the Moth trilogy, assuming the EDGE people decide to go with me.

The Moth series was a blast to write--it was the first novel/story that just sort of "came" to me. I hate to be dramatic about this, but it seriously came to me in a dream. The whole thing did. Yeah, the specific beats and plot points had to be worked out, but it was such a strange thing, having the idea come ex nihilo like this. 

Anyway, I'll follow the progress of the novel and keep you posted!

Be seeing you!

Some words in English are pretty much single-purpose words. "Faucet," for example, pretty much means one thing and one thing only. Other words might have a dual purpose, either because of meaning or part of speech or both. "Knife" might be such a word: as a noun, it's a bladed weapon or tool, while as a verb it can mean to sort of find a way through obstacles or clutter ("he knifed through the coverage into the open field"). It can also, of course, mean to attack someone with a knife, but that's not all that different from the noun meaning. 

Other words are sort of hybrids--they have many meanings and even within those meanings have different connotations. "Hustle" is one such word. As a coach, I use this word all the time to mean "move quickly and energetically." My wife just watched the movie Hustlers, which was about a group of women who, through a complex and systematic mechanism of deception and trickery, fooled people out of their money. 

There's a kind of middle ground with that word, meaning "to obtain through forceful action or persuasion." Or to go and get something because you put a lot of effort and energy into getting it. Or being indefatigable. This aspect of the word doesn't have a negative connotation--it means to work hard at something until you get it.

In the world of the arts, we usually apply this word not so much to the actual effort involved in creating the art (we won't usually say "I hustled until I created my sculpture" but rather in selling it, in getting the word out about your work, in getting eyes or ears on your project. Say what you want, but the creation of good art is not always enough for the world to notice it (and, conversely, the creation of bad art can be noticed through hype and hustle). 

So what does this all mean? The publisher I've worked with on my last two novels (Beltrunner and Silent Manifest) sent me a marketing guide that included a list of questions for the writer to answer. Stuff like "is this a hobby or a career?" and "what are you willing to do in order to market your work?" Maybe the good folks at EDGE Publishing didn't know it, but those questions really stuck with me.

Here it is: I'm not huge on New Year's Resolutions, but since we're sort of close to that, here come a few.

I resolve to commit to marketing my writing, not just to writing.
I resolve to up my social media footprint.
I resolve to overcome my natural reluctance to self-promote.

That seems good enough, right?

​Be seeing you?

I really appreciate the folks at NaNoWriMo. Look, I know the objections: real writers don't need this artificial deadline stuff. We don't need more people dallying with writing--we need more REAL WRITERS. And so and and so much more folderol. Sure, whatever. But I like it. First of all, it comes at a perfect time: right when football season is ending (this year, by an odd coincidence, football season ended for me the night before, which meant I was writing the very next day). Second of all, some of us who aren't REAL WRITERS could do with a sort of literary goose, if you'll pardon the expression. Even if you won't. Third, up yours. I don't need to explain myself to you and why I appreciate NaNoWriMo, and why I like the frothy little pep talks and merchandise and the whole thing. I guess I've come to really appreciate earnestness in my late middle age (I won't call it old age, so stop murmuring under your breath). And the NaNoWriMo people are nothing if not earnest.

Maybe it's a Trump thing. Liking earnestness, I mean. Appreciating the guy who cheerfully says, "enjoy your coffee and have a super day!" and really seems to mean it. When I say "it's a Trump thing" don't for a fucking minute think I believe he is earnest. No, I mean with the chaotic evil administration and the darkness and the thin layer of corn-fed shit that seems to be all over everything American these days, I guess I've come to really appreciate the dogged determination to be goddam cheerful.

Dogged is right--my little pups (Rocky the spunky, delicate papillon and Eddie the slightly stupid but staunch pug) are as earnest as they come. No pretense or irony in a puppy, is there? They wear their emotions on their sleeves (can you say that about dogs?) and are unashamedly themselves. That's a lot of what I love about them.

And that's what I love about NaNoWriMo. It's very much itself and happy to be it. Hard to argue with that philosophy, isn't it?

Be seeing you!