Welcome one
and all to Spring 2014! Hope the
holidays were fabulous to you and yours, and that your new year has started out
with a bang — or at the very least, with little if any snow. (What up, fellow east-coasters!)
As I’m sure will
come as no surprise to those who know us; 2014 got off to a roaring start in
the Malone house. I’m happy to report
that my first ever panel at this year’s illogicon in Raleigh went off rather
well, despite a few pre-show jitters on my part. We had a nice turnout, and I’d like to thank
everyone who stopped by, as well as my partner on the panel — Lynn MacNamee of Red Adept Publishing.
Now it’s off
to April when I’ll be part of a similar panel on indie publishing at this
year’s ALT*Con in my hometown of Tallahassee. Stay tuned here and on FB/Twitter for
date/time specifics as they unfold.
RSD edits continue
The second
draft of RED SKY DAWNING (Book Two n THE MAKO SAGA) continues to unfold. Now that I’m back in the swing of things,
I’ve had the chance to really dig into the content, and while there’s obviously
loads to do, I’m happy to report that much of the story’s content from draft one
remains intact. As was certainly the
case in book one, I find that the action scenes are always the toughest to
write — a point usually reflected in my page count at the end of a given
writing day. Give me a setting, a
conversation, and a pair of characters, and I’ll bang out 3,000 words in two
hours. But exposition, world-building,
and tactical design?
… Yep, put
on a fresh pot of coffee and bunker in, cuz it’s gonna be a while.
I will say
this, however, with regard to story differences: RSD is a more serious piece than
MAKO in a lot of respects. Believe me,
you’ll pick that up in the prologue, and it’s a theme that carries straight
through the entire story. Don’t get me
wrong, RSD still has all of the party humor, snarky dialogue, and pop culture
references that most of you dug about book one… that’s the Renegades. But this is a story set five years after the
events of MAKO, and A LOT has changed in the lives of every member of the team.
MAKO hits actual bookshelves!
I’m also
happy to report that MAKO may soon be available for purchase at your
neighborhood brick and mortar bookstore!
As a lot of folks know (especially other indie authors), many independent
shops won’t deal with CreateSpace as it’s owned by Amazon… you know, the 800-lb
gorilla that’s presently trying to put them all out of business?
So, for that
reason, I’ve expanded my distribution net by opening an account with Ingram
Spark, and as such, bookstores can now go online to IS and order MAKO at
wholesale by simply using its ISBN (978-0989032704).
FYI to
anyone near Tally, I’ll be discussing a lot of this at the ALT*Con panel next
month. Trust me, this may seem like a
fairly trivial thing at first glance, but it’s really not.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T for Bucs fans… FINALLY!
As most of
you are probably not Bucs fans, I won’t dwell on this. But given the absolute nightmare surrounding
my favorite NFL team for much of the last decade (most of which was
self-inflected on account of piss-poor leadership from the front office), I can’t
tell you just how stoked I am to see Lovie Smith in charge and making
changes. Greg Schiano, like Raheem
Morris before him, was a joke of a hire — A., because he wasn’t remotely
qualified for the head job, and B., because he had no clue how to manage an NFL
locker room once he got it.
Smith, by
contrast, is the antithesis of this.
He’s a great coach with fantastic credentials and strong ties to the
Tampa community. Moreover, he’s a man of
impeccable character who commands the respect of all who know him. To put it another way: he’s a leader, and a
damn good one… something this team has sorely lacked since the Gruden days, and
some even question whether we really had it then.
Great hire,
Tampa Bay… finally. Now let’s go play
some football!
Okay guys, that’s
gonna do it for Blog One of 2014. Take
care, keep in touch, and as always… Happy Reading!!!
RUAH!
IJM
