Being a writer, I don't often have "typical" days.  And that's been typical lately. On Saturday, we went to see Vertical Horizon in concert in the SkySox stadium in Colorado Springs.  I first met Matt Scannell, the front man for Vertical Horizon, last November backstage at the Rush "Clockwork Angels" concert in Anaheim, through our mutual friend Neil Peart.  Neil has been talking about Matt to me for a long time, and apparently he's been talking to Matt about me.  It was great to meet him in person, and we hit it off immediately. A few months later, Rebecca and...
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Anyone who knows my work or reads this blog is familiar with how much I write.  I work on several novel projects at once (and maybe a short story or two), at various stages of completion.  This summer, though, thanks to prior commitments and moving publication schedules, I found myself in a collision course of deadlines. MENTATS OF DINE, THE DARK BETWEEN THE STARS, and THE DRAGON BUSINESS all came due at about the same time. I wrote the first draft of THE DARK BETWEEN THE STARS, volume one in a new trilogy set in the Seven Suns universe,  last...
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After finishing and delivering three novels in two months, I was going stir crazy.  I wanted to get out, go hiking, get exercise, challenge myself. I've already climbed every one of the Fourteeners (54 peaks in Colorado over 14,000 ft in elevation). In sixteen years of living in Colorado I've climbed at least one 14er every summer (and sometimes snowshoed them in the winter), so I wanted to keep the record rolling. Mt. Bierstadt, 14,060 ft, is not far and not hard, so I thought it was a good alternative for a nice day hike, just to get outside for...
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A few months ago I wrote a post called “The Series Death Spiral and Other Unfortunate Realities of Publishing,” about how chain bookstores can kill a series by ordering to the net.  (You can read that post here.) One of my readers responded with, “That’s why I indie publish my own books, because then I’m in control and I never have to worry about a series going out of print.” True enough. “But,” I responded, “try getting twenty hardcover copies of your indie-published book in any bookstore, much less every chain bookstore across the country.” There are some things the...
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