Psychedelia Gothique

     Over a week since I released my collection, Psychedelia Gothique and I have to idea whether anyone has even bought a copy! More than a little anticlimactic given the amount of work and love and enthusiasm that has gone into it.      The process has taught me so much so far and it's really just beginning. As much as you hear about things going viral and people getting rich or famous overnight, I think the process of becoming a successful writer/artists and amassing fans is becoming more important than ever. I think you can build a reputation now far more easily than in the past. But it still comes to you one fan, one reader one helpful colleague at a time. And given how long I've been out of circulation, any success I manage to achieve won't come overnight. By publishing five stories directly to my collection, I bypassed the opportunity to showcase them in places that have already built audiences. The only surefire way for me to get those s...

After all that blather about how I had made up my mind and was so proud of my cover choice, I responded to criticism by designing several alternate covers - and I have now chosen a different one!  If the logistics weren't so tricky, I'd do it like a magazine with four alternate covers. But it's going to perplex me enough just figuring out how to put it out with one cover. This was voted on by people on a number of different forums and beat out the other 3 covers by a solid margin. My original cover came in third. So anyways, this is absolutely, positively the final cover!  Wait...how long til publication? Less than six weeks? Well, okay then, this is ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY the final cover design. Psychedelia Gothique on Amazon.com And of course, wherever there's a winner, there has to be losers, so here they are:  

Received the POD copies of Psychedelia Gothique last night - or at least the pre-copy edited prototype. However seminal and unfinished and self-published it may be, it still felt great to hold the book in my hands. I know how good it is. Now I just have to get the rest of the world to check it out and my job here will be done - at least until the next book. It's sitting on the dining room table with some books by some friends that were published by small presses. Several of those have terrible covers (one or two have brilliant covers as well). I feel that I have avoided that crapshoot. Some people may think my cover horrible as well - but at least I like it!! And  there are certainly worse things than being true to yourself. But now I have to sell that vision to the rest of the world, and it ain't exactly mainstream. Ah, well...nothing ventured...

Just over ten years ago, my life underwent a huge and unexpected transformation. I changed career paths (a decision that went brilliantly for many years, before going somewhat off the  rails and leaving me in a bit of a career limbo). I left a romantic relationship with a someone who shared many of my obsessions and priorities and shortly after that entered into a new relationship with someone who had a significantly different view on life than what I was used to. One thing I decided to do at the time was abandon my dreams of becoming a successful writer. I felt that I  had lost whatever magic touch I once had that made my writing worth reading and had become disillusioned with the notion of success. None of my friends who had become successful full-time writers seemed much happier for it - and I was stunned by the amount of pressure they encountered as their work became more popular - to hew to a schedule. Prolificacy became the single most important thing in their lives ...

So far my observation is that a writer should not allow any given story to become too important to them. I think it's a form of obsession. But it has happened to me anyway. And that story continues to exercise its thrall on me. Over 20 years ago, I wrote I novelette called "Masks of Flesh and Sanity." Even while I was writing it I felt that this was the story that defines me. In 20 years, it's gone through probably 20 versions, five different titles and a dozen endings. Every time I reread it, I think, "this is a major story." I felt that way about "Labour Relations" - which became my first story sale and first appearance in a well-known magazine. I felt that way about "The Onion Test" and it was sort of an underground breakout story for me. I felt that way about "Fourth Person Singular" and received validation from the award nominations and great reviews and resales of  that story. Of course, I also felt that way about ...

When a new book appears in the bookstores, what happens if audiences ignore it? It vanishes quickly and ignominiously. A few weeks on the shelves (max), then down it comes. Traditionally, the covers were torn off and the book was sent back to the publisher. That's it. No second chances, no mercy, no pardons. And what are the chances that the publishers would carry on and publish your second book? Diminished is a good word. If you were lucky, your chances were diminished. If the reception was exceptionally silent, you were screwed. The chances after that of any other publisher putting out another book by the same author?  Pay attention. I said "screwed." So what I'm saying is that in the old days, writers and publishers had one shot - one chance to get it right. The world of e-books is somewhat kinder. Granted, big advances for unknown writers may be a thing of  the past. And you still may never sell any books. Nothing like getting a royalty cheque that won't ...

Short fiction has been out of fashion for quite some time. Sure, there have been a few amazing practitioners who have been quite successful writing short stories; the list that comes to mind includes Raymond Carver, Ernest Hemingway, Harlan Ellison, Donald Barthelme, Flannery O'Connor, John Updike, Jorge Luis Borges, Alice Munro and...uhm...probably half a dozen other people. Only a few of those people wrote short stories exclusively. This is something I need to keep in mind while assembling my story collection. If I can get a few readers, it would be good. A few dozen would be better. A few hundred would be phenomenal. More than that is just a silly pipedream. So I should be surprised that nobody has been reading my stories on Wattpad? Not! Most assuredly freaking not. When I browsed through the what's hot section on Wattpad I discovered that serialized novels are the thing. So I put up the beginning of my big fantasy novel, Out of the Nether. I'm planning to put up a ...