I'm back....

Suffice it to say that I'm lucky that I don't pretend to make a living blogging.

For what it's worth, I signed on to Twitter yesterday. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how I'm going to utilize it, but my profile is here if you want to start "following" me.

So what's been happening? After keeping me waiting for 22 months (yes, twenty-two months, a publisher was kind enough to let me know that Little Birdies! "wasn't what they were looking for."

At the same time, a literary agent had the manuscript for 15 months (yes, fifteen months), all the while assuring me that she was "still interested." Until she just sort of faded away...

The manuscripts for The Cup of My Blood and The Last Bartender are faring no better. I've decided that regardless of what I write and how well I write it, I'm just not going to live long enough to see my work picked up by a traditional publisher (and, I should add, I'm in perfect health).

Actually, I'm morified that for so long I chose to put my faith in a sclerotic, unreconstructed paleo-industry rather than in myself. I apologize for that, and it won't happen again...

Okay, I got that out of my system. Now on to what's happening...

I'm going to release Little Birdies! under my own label, Ten Mile Press, through BookSurge. The manuscript has been formatted and the cover design is well underway. I can't say for sure, but I'm hoping that the book will be available on Amazon in late spring/early summer. At that point, I'll get right to work on prepping The Cup of My Blood for release.

The Last Bartender has been submitted to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest. As I understand it, there will be up to 10,000 submissions accepted (submissions were closed on Feb. 2, 2009), with 500 quarter-finalists to be announced on March 16, 2009. If I make that cut, I'll need your help in making it to the next level, the top 100, to be chosen by April 15th. I'll let you know when the time comes...

In other news, Aqua Vitae has just passed 40,000 words, and I anticipate its completion some time this summer.

I'll let you know how the progress with Little Birdies! is going and what happens with the Amazon contest.

Thanks for hanging in there with me.