Now that I'm retired, my recent experience with my part-time job has reminded me why I hated punching the clock so very, very, very much. I did it for decades, and now I don't have to do that shit anymore. I've cranked the part-time job back to one to two days per week. Seriously. Really. And I have many weeks planned in 2020 when I won't be in town and will not work at all. So, I'm reminded of one of my first experiments in self-publishing. My short story attached to my WORKING CLASS HERO novel, "Turn of Events", which is all about punching the clock. Go to Amazon and buy a copy. Less than a buck. You'll dig it, especially if you're a superhero fan.
"Turn of Events" a Working Class Hero story of Billy B; Charlotte, North Carolina's resident badass superhero.
When I'm not hiking and kayaking and camping and backpacking and generally enjoying the outdoors, you can find me working on my short stories and novels. Here, then, are my current published works of fiction. First up, WORKING CLASS HERO: The Autobiography of Billy B., A Hyper Human. First chapter in what is slated to be a trilogy all nicely bound and wrapped up by the end of the third novel. Hopefully, I'd like to even continue writing WORKING CLASS HERO novels for years. I could, quite actually, keep the series going for a long time. What are you waiting for? Read it now! Pure fun for cool people! Available in paperback, ebook, and audio! Woo-HOO!
Next up is FOUR FROM MANGROVE. When Hippocampus Press published my short story collection, A CONFEDERACY OF HORRORS, they excised the four "Mangrove" stories for being too fantasy oriented. These stories are set in the mythical world of the city-state called Mangrove. The stories range over a period of hundreds of years, during which Mangrove might be a might continent-spanning empire, or a busy trading port controlled by outside forces. But it's always Mangrove and its citizens are always busy about the task of commerce and mischief.
Influenced by my love of the works of Karl Edward Wagner and Robert Ervin Howard, here are four fantasy tales of swords and sorcery, of humanity. FOUR FROM MANGROVE.
Next up is LOVECRAFT'S COMIC. This horror novella concerns itself with some extreme Lovecraftian creepiness. Two old comic artist friends, one flush with success in the comics industry, the other left behind to live in poverty and failure, are taken on a ride straight to living Hell by the accidental discovery of something evil. One decides to translate the evil to comics format, and the other is caught between friendship and pure horror. Available in print and ebook. (Warning: this ain't a pleasant fireside ghost yarn.)
And, last, some folk were clamoring for the next chapter of WORKING CLASS HERO (and it's not quite ready), so I offered up this short story of superhumans Billy B. and SHYLOCK HOLMES as they do battle with a particularly creepy outlaw.
Here, then, is TURN OF EVENTS. Available only in ebook format. (Alas.)
I've been published in hardback format, various paperback types, in comic book and graphic novel, magazines, chapbooks, anthology, and in ebook. I've even had some of my work optioned for film, even if none of those options have so far resulted in reaching the screens. Now, my latest book--WORKING CLASS HERO--is headed for audiobook. Beacon Publishing will be producing the audio version. So far, that's about all I know, other than that it will also be available through Audible.com. As near as I've been able to find, release will be "in a couple of months". April? Early May? I'll post any details as they come to me. Until then, you can pick up the novel in two of those already mentioned formats: paperback or ebook. And you can also buy a cool 5400-word WORKING CLASS HERO short story in strictly ebook format for less than a buck!
Back in the day, promotions were easier. I had a much simpler job of promoting my work when--according to modern experts--the system was more disjointed and less well connected than it is now. For instance, promoting my first novel, THE FLOCK, was a simple job for me. I sent out review copies, and I got in contact with various bookstores and libraries and magazines and got the word out. It worked well and I had a decent amount of success. It was more impersonal than things are now, but the results were good. (And, no, for those who ask, not even Tor Books did any advertising for the book. It's up to the writer to walk those miles.) These days there is the Internet. And almost all publishing today is done electronically. Fewer and fewer people buy and read books. Bookstores are vanishing. Libraries seem to be simple hangouts and little more. The traditional publishers who remain don't advertise the books they buy--they expect the authors to spend their advance money publicizing their novels. (Admittedly, this was even the case when I sold my first traditionally published novel.) Publishers have decided to let the writers do the leg work. No publisher I have ever signed with has done any real advertising. Zero. Not one, thin dime. So it's on the writer's head to get the word out and to try to push the sales figures in the right direction. But it is a tedious job. For some, it's just overwhelming. Recently I was reading a blog from a moderately well-known author and he claims to spend up to sixty hours a week promoting his fiction. That's a week and a half of labor for a man with a normal job. I hate to be blunt...but fuck that. I suppose I will continue to write, and I will be forced to promote my own work since publishers have no budgets for that in these times of shrinking book sales. In their case, it's pretty much a self-fulfilling doom prophecy.
And even though I don't spend anywhere near sixty hours a week promoting my fiction (I have to have time to live and, yes, to write) I still feel that I expend far too much time in promotions. To paraphrase Bones McCoy, "I'm a writer, damn it! Not a salesman!"
And, now, having made that point--shameless promotion time. If you enjoyed my novel WORKING CLASS HERO, you will want to buy the short story "A Turn of Events" which is available in ebook format only. And if you haven't yet bought a copy of WORKING CLASS HERO, you can get an idea of what it's all about by reading this low-cost story of 5400 words.
