Touratech Rally

Well, that was fun. Literally. I took my Royal Enfield Himalayan motorcycle out to the greater Plain metropolitan area and took part in an off-road motorcycle rally. Ostensibly, I was there on business (remember the Simple Shower from Surveyor? Well, it’s real and I was selling it). I also got some trail time on the bike, taking it out for it’s first real forest roads (and mine in 30 years). Glad I took a motorcycle training class for off-roading a couple of weeks ago.

Did I do any writing? No, but I did swing by a restaurant on the east side of Mount Rainier National Park (MoRa) to verify some stuff for my upcoming novel, Reset. Yep, glad I did – I was mistaken about some features, but now I’m not.

Back to motorcycling. If you’ve done street biking (like I did many moons ago), it’s completely different than riding off-road (which includes trails and gravel roads – they really should just call it off-pavement or off-asphalt, but it’s off-road). On the street, you sit and lean with the bike. Pretty basic. With off-road, you stand and salsa (lean on the outside peg, hip out, and outside shoulder/elbow up). My trainer had me do the salsa to learn it (literally, we stood on the ground and did the salsa!). So, now, as I’m cruising up and down the logging roads and trails (and my 3/4 mile gravel driveway), I’m moving about on the pegs, standing, with da-da-da-da-da-da going through my brain.

If you’re into adventure biking or off-road riding, check out the Touratech Rally. It takes place every June in the little town (thriving metropolis) of Plain, WA (which is just, plain beautiful), just a mere half-hour north of Leavenworth (Washington State’s faux Bavaria).

Vacation? Five Stars – Highly recommend!

So, I just got back from a vacation. What makes that so special? Everyone goes on vacations. Most people do one or two a year. Well….

What made this vacation special for me was the fact that A) it was my first vacation in four years and 2) it was the first vacation in about 20 years I didn’t work. Yep, you heard that right – I didn’t work (for the first time in about 20 years – did I mention that already?). It’s not that I’m type A (well, I guess a little – okay, maybe a lot), but for the past 20 years I’ve either been teaching (mostly online) or working fraud cases.

My family has usually elected to take vacations while I still had to teach (it worked mostly for my wife’s work schedule and the kid’s school schedule), so I had to drag the laptop along and teach while on vacation (logging in daily and grading, mostly). Even while walking across Spain on the Camino de Santiago I had to drag my laptop along to complete a fraud case (that pesky time-sensitive thing most fraud cases involve).

What made this non-working vacation possible? First, I quit teaching online (sorry students). Second, I let all the clients and attorneys know – I’m on vacation. I will not be working or responding to emails or working on any cases or answering any phone calls. And I didn’t! And it was great!

I know what most of you are thinking – who cares that you didn’t teach or work on any fraud cases while you were on vacation. How many words did you write?

Honestly, not many. Although I did haul along my little laptop (more a tablet – an Asus Mini-Transformer), I actually didn’t sit down and do too much writing. I got a little done on a couple of mornings, and some on the flight back to the mainland, but that was it. At most, a couple of thousand words (on a YA novel set in the CoD/HC timeline which I’ve been working on piece by piece over the past two years), but nothing on Reset or the next in the CoD series (which I still don’t have a name for).

Here’s a special shout-out to Shawn Inmon, who took some of his valuable time away from writing to talk a little publishing business (while I sipped Kona coffee on the lanai one morning, watching the waves of the tropical ocean, smelling the scent of tropical flowers wafting up while bird sang and screeched in the trees). I would say between that 20-30 minute conversation and the probably one hour spent writing, that was the most actual work I did (and I don’t consider writing or talking writing to be business – so there!).

Back to writing!

I blame you!

That was the subject matter of a recent email to fellow novelist, Shawn Inmon. What on Earth did Shawn do to get blamed for? Simple – his writing took away from mine!

Let me explain. No, that would take too long. Let me sum up. Shawn and I (along with aspiring crime/thriller writer Ken W.) hooked up for lunch last week while I was in Olympia having my motorcycle go through its 300 mile tune-up. The upshot is, I wound up buying A Door into Time: An Alex Hawk Time Travel Adventure. So, on a recent, long flight, where I had planned to spend time writing, I spent the time reading instead. Damn you, Shawn Inmon 🙂 I blame you.

If you’re interested in reading this book (which I highly recommend), you can get it on Amazon or through Shawn’s page (I recommend going through his website).

Openings – now opened!

For those that weren’t on the email list (you really should be on it) or don’t follow me on Facebook (that’s okay). Openings was released in digital format for Kindle two days ago and in paperback format yesterday. You can order your copy through the links on the CHECK OUT THE BOOKS ON AMAZON box at the top right of my home-page (please do so – the links are an affiliate link, which means I make just a little bit more money than just the royalty).

Almost there!

Yay! The cover art is complete (I really like it) and we’re working on the final steps to publishing. Expect the release before the Memorial Day Weekend.

If you want to be on the mailing list to know as soon as it’s published (so you can get your copy fast!), shoot me a message.

Soon, Grasshopper. Soon.

I know, many of you have been waiting for Openings, but you’ll have to wait just a little longer. Why? Because I switched cover artists. I already had a cover finished, but I wasn’t as happy with it, so when I saw another author’s cover that I liked, I got in contact with that author and the artists.

I really, really, really, like what the new artist is doing. I think you will, too. So, how much longer? Figure on another two weeks. Hopefully before Memorial Day weekend. I’ll send out an email to all those on my mailing list before the release date – so be sure to get your copy as soon as it’s available (always good to sell a lot of books – Amazon algorithms then put you at the top of people’s viewing lists).

Too many WIPS!

Ok, so I know that sometimes I tend to do more than I should (my wife says I can’t say “No” to a project), so here’s my conundrum. I’ve got three Works In Progress (WIP) not including Openings. The issue is that I’d like to knock them out one at a time, rather than working on them simultaneously (as I’ve been doing). Which one first?

The three books are a sequel to Openings, a fourth book in the Corps of Discovery Series, and a stand-alone YA novel (based on Hayek a few years before Surveyor). BTW, none of this includes any of the other books I’ve got floating around in my overactive brain case.

In case you’re wondering where this is going, it’s my way of processing how to proceed. At bat is the YA novel, with Reset (the sequel to Openings) on deck. Sorry fans of Bill of Meri, but you’re gonna have to wait a bit, as the fourth in the Corps of Discovery series is in the hole (gotta love baseball terminology – did I ever tell you I played baseball from the 1st through 6th grade?).

I think my AU series of a tank destroyer unit (haven’t decided if it’ll be at the company, battalion, or CRT level yet) is gonna have to wait another year 😦 (very sad face, I really want to get this out). But, don’t despair – it’ll be set in one of the AUs already covered.

Oh, did I mention I still have to work my fraud investigative business (or forensic accounting for fraud as otherwise described), plus I still get to teach my Geography & Cartography for Worldbuilding class once a semester at Digipen Institute of Technology (love teaching there – great, smart kids – plus my youngest just graduated from there with her BFA in Digital Art & Animation).

“I really enjoyed this one”

Got the draft of Openings back from the editor today. The line above was the second sentence in her email. Gotta love it when you get emails like this. The full sentence was “I really enjoyed this one–I mean, I’ve liked them all, but this was fascinating, it was so great to see how it all started.”

I guess I’ll spend a week or two refining the copy so it either comports with my editor’s comments, or not (remember, if writing, you are the master of your own wordsmith!).

I know, I know. “When will Openings be released James?” or “Damnit Jim, we’re readers, and we gotta read!” Patience grasshopper (or for the newer generation, “Soon, Padwan.”). I’m also tweaking the cover. All while trying to do this after toe joint replacement (ever try to write at a desk with a foot-rest under it, pushing the screen closer to the edge while you have to sit further back due to said position of foot under desk?).

So, back to the original question of “when will Openings be released?” Not certain, but figure within the month. If you’d like advance notice of the release date (i.e., a personal email) make sure you’ve sent me your email. Wouldn’t it be awesome if all my readers/fans/groupies purchased Openings on the release date? That would certainly put the Amazon algorithms up and push my book to the top (I would love to see that #1 New Release banner on the release date – hint, hint).