Welcome to the “Indie Writing Life,” my semi-regular blog series about my ongoing activities as a writer, i.e. – somebody running a business writing and selling books. My 2024 inaugural episode can be found here, if you’d like to start at the beginning. The last episode is here.
Conventions & Events
I had two events scheduled, one in late October and the other in early November. One turned out to be a failure, and the other was a pretty spectacular success. I guess that averages out to a decent success.
The first was ComicLogic’s Fall Lot Con, hosted by my local comic book shop. It was a good event, and well-run as per usual, but I’m starting to think that Halloween maybe isn’t the right time of year to run it.
It’s a half-day event, held in the parking lot of the Ashburn Village Shopping Center in Ashburn, VA. If you like SF/Fantasy books, comic books, artwork of various types, or other craft items, it’s a very nice event. Since it’s October, they also advertise it as “Trunk or Treat” for the kids, with candy at all of the tables.
So, why was it a failure? Look, it costs $45…and I got skunked for the first time in my entire writing career. Not a single sale. Zip. Nada. Not even any Newsletter sign-ups. Zero for exposure.
It was all trick-or-treaters and no buyers. I don’t think anybody even came by who was interested in looking at books. And I wasn’t the only vendor who was unhappy at the turnout.
For the Spring edition of the event, I had terrific sales. Fall Lot Con has always had less sales for me. But this was unexpected. I didn’t expect to make a bunch of money, but I expected to at least break even. Honestly, I’ll still do Spring Lot Con, but it calls into question whether I’ll do Fall Lot Con again.
Look, I still had fun. Some friends came by and I got to chat with them. And it was a lovely day. So, I don’t regret the event fee. But I’m a professional writer. I choose events for money and exposure. Yes, I have fun, too, but I’m running a business, not a hobby.
Now, the second event in early November was “The Basics of Writing,” a half-day event at the Leesburg Library with multiple workshops hosted by the Feral Writers Club, with me as their Guest of Honor.
The event featured four sessions. The first was basically about what it took to be a writer, i.e. – finding the time to write, the tools that writers might use, how to find useful educational events (such as this event), how to find a good writing group, etc. The second was on plotting and story structure. The third was my session on Worldbuilding. The final session was on crafting characters.
We had over forty attendees. By library rules, we were not allowed to sell books, though we panelists did have them displayed for attendees who were interested. I also gathered a bunch of Newsletter signups (and a couple book sales out in the parking lot).This was an excellent event from the perspective of exposure. I networked with some fellow writers, interacted with an interested audience, got some Newsletter signups, etc. Additionally, I now have an hour-long lecture version of a two-hour-long collaborative workshop, which gives me additional flexibility for future speaking events.
Work-In-Progress (WIP)
Most of my focus is still on “Pivot Point,” as I drive toward completion on the story. It’s an odd tale, with its fractured narrative structure. The story begins with a massive airship battle, which the good guys lose. From there, the pivot point of the story, it spirals backward and forward until, at the end, the reader has to reinterpret what really happened in the battle.
I’d originally left the battle out, starting the story after the battle (inspired, maybe a little bit, by Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs), and then moving backward and forward in alternating chapters. Over the summer, I added the battle scene, since my writing group, the Hourlings, made the case that we needed to experience that titanic battle and the resulting loss in order to get the necessary emotional impact.
That new chapter worked nicely, but unbalanced the back-and-forth flow of the story. The fix has been to add a new Chapter 4 for balance. I also decided to expand Chapter 2, to amp up the emotional impact, and also to serve as a lull between action beats. Pacing matters, and even the biggest action movies need to have lulls between their action setpieces (see The Terminator for a master class in how to pace an action story).
I expect the expanded Chapter 2 and the new Chapter 4 will be complete in time to be critiqued by the Hourlings in December.
While I’m actively writing on one story, I often do development for other stories. Things that I lump under “development,” like research, worldbuilding, and character generation, all require different mental muscles than generating “new words.”
A while back, I ran a writing exercise for my writing group called “The City on the Edge of the Maelstrom.” The scenario was that there was a small city and in the valley next to it there was a mysterious maelstrom that was the source of all magic in the world. It was a brainstorming exercise. With just that minimal amount of detail, the group was supposed to brainstorm about that scenario.
How does the Maelstrom work? Where do mages come from? (They have to survive the Maelstrom in order to gain their powers) What is it like living in the city? Who lives there, anyway? How do the various nations handle this mysterious city (By treaty, it’s an independent city, not allowed to be taken over by any one nation). Etc.
It was a fun brainstorming exercise.
Now, I didn’t necessarily agree with all the things the group came up with. But…I really liked the idea. So, I’ve started fleshing it out. I’ve been working on the history, the geography, the surrounding nations, the map of the city itself, etc. I’ve worked out what the Maelstrom is, and some of the entities that live within it (and what they want, as well as how inimical they might be to those pesky humans).
I’ve even started noodling on some characters, mostly people who live there, or visit the city. Some of them are background characters. Others might be protagonists in various stories I’m envisioning. I’ve even been brainstorming some of this with the Tropemaster, my friend Bill Aguiar.
The world isn’t ready for Prime Time yet…but it’s getting there.
On yet another note, I have another story in an even earlier stage of development. I came up with an idea for a fantasy Kaiju story featuring Jonelle Crosse, my mage troubleshooter from my Thousand Kingdoms universe. That’s been the subject of yet another brainstorming session with the incomparable Bill Aguiar.
Add in an anthology project on top of everything, and all I gotta say is, “Need more dilithium…”
About the Tropemaster
Speaking of the Tropemaster…I believe I’ve mentioned before that Bill is a frequent volunteer at all sorts of conventions related to books and gaming. One of the cons that he’s done a lot of work for over the years is Malice Domestic, a mystery convention held here in the Washington DC metropolitan area.
Well, they’ve selected him as their Fan Guest of Honor for 2026.
Malice Domestic is an interesting convention. It’s a mystery convention, but it’s really aimed at writers. In other words, it’s a convention for professionals, those who are serious about becoming professionals, and dedicated fans. As such, it costs more than a typical fan-oriented literary convention.
I’ve wanted to go to it for years. After all, many of my stories have a mystery or crime angle to them, even if they take place in a Fantasy or SF setting. Some specific examples include (links go to previews):
- Dustbowl Detective – Investigating the robbery of an AI-controlled train.
- Finders Keepers – Recovering a kidnapped clone before she’s trafficked away.
- Bitter Days – Bringing justice to whoever killed an impoverished orphan living on the streets.
- Jonelle Crosse – Tracking down a wily demon that has escaped a summoning gone wrong.
- The Whispering Voice – Foiling a robbery and a kidnapping.
But the first time I actually cleared my schedule so I could go (back in 2024), I got selected as a panelist for RavenCon.
RavenCon, which is a very nice SF convention, is always held the same weekend as Malice Domestic. So, They have somewhere around a thousand or so attendees. So, now I’ve been on Programming for that con in 2024 and 2025. But, with their regular guests, they have a policy of “two years on, one year off,” which allows them to rotate their guest list a bit.
With 2026 being my off year from RavenCon, and especially with Bill being the Fan Guest of Honor, I’ll be going to Malice Domestic for the first time. I’m really looking forward to it.
The Forever Inn
You may recall that I’ve published two anthologies, Fantastic Defenders (2018) and Fantastic Detectives (2023). Both were done with my awesome co-editor, Donna Royston, who regrettably passed away in December, 2024. What you may not know is that we worked on a third anthology together in 2020 called The Forever Inn.
Where is it, you ask?
Well, thereby hangs a tale.
It was meant to be a shared setting. The venue, which had to be used in a significant way in each story, was a magical inn, described as:
The Forever Inn is a magical inn that randomly appears in different realities across the multiverse, staying for between a day and a week, and then moving on. Within its confines, all sorts of people meet, share drinks, sample the inn’s eclectic cross-time menu, experience adventures, and sometimes change each other’s lives.
Prospective authors were given the Forever Inn Bible, a PDF document that provided details of the setting. Background information included an image of the inn, a map of the inn’s layout, and a list of staff and regular guests that could be leveraged in stories, either as protagonists or just background characters. It also included a glossary of terms specific to the Forever Inn and some details about the known history and operations of the inn (after all, it had to function on a 24/7 basis).
The project fell apart for several reasons. First, we didn’t get quite enough stories. Maybe I didn’t cast a wide enough net. Second, the cover artist I’d commissioned bailed out on me, which rather well torched my vision for the effort. Third, I think the Pandemic may have had some effect, as well, both on the level of response to the Call for Stories and the general malaise of dealing with unexpected issues while the world was seemingly falling apart. Fourth, delays in commissioning additional content ran the project right smack into the schedule for Fantastic Detectives, which, in contrast, was going swimmingly well.
So, I put The Forever Inn on hold, focused on the anthology that was going well, and got Fantastic Detectives released both successfully and to a certain amount of modest acclaim.
Note that I’d already collected signed contracts for the stories that had been accepted, and I’d also sent out the advance payments to those stories. Money paid out, with no anthology in sight. Not an ideal situation for anybody.
I’d also decided that I wouldn’t work on another anthology until The Forever Inn saw print. I’m not in the business of leaving people hanging.
Well, to make a long story short, stuff is happening. I’ve got the additional content I need for the anthology. I’m currently in discussions with a cover artist about a cover that I think could suit the anthology quite nicely. It’s a premade, but it will require some alterations in order to adapt it to my purposes.
I should have more details on this anthology project in next month’s edition of the Indie Writing Life. At this point, I anticipate publication sometime in early 2026. And, by the way, Donna Royston will be listed as co-editor, so this is the culmination of our last project together.R.I. P. Donna.
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