MAD DOG BARKED is (mostly) finished
When Truth Always Kills was published, ostensibly in December but it didn't seem to be widely shipping until January, the professional reviews were very good. But with the late shipping and the Christmas holiday in there, the book seemed to take off a bit slowly. Finally it's been gathering a bit of steam and some user reviews are coming in that are really quite nice, readers have been e-mailing me, which is always a treat, and hopefully things will keep trending upward. Bill Crider told me the book deserves to be read, but sometimes it takes luck. Which, apparently, can be slow to come by around Christmas time.
A lot of people are asking for a sequel. All my books have been standalones to this point, and while Mad Dog Barked, which I just typed "THE END" to three days ago, is also a standalone, to me it leaves even more room for a sequel. I've kind of toyed with the idea of writing a sequel that brings characters from all four books together but that might just be silly. We'll see. I started a new one the other night, but it's already taking on its own life.
Now I have to edit Mad Dog before I turn it in to Stark House Press, and that's the really scary part. You find all the typos that your fingers give you as they mis-translate the words in your mind onto the page. And there will be the usual one or two utterly incomprehensible sentences, I'm sure. Mostly, you trim, tighten, sometimes expand, clarify, but it's all a sentence by sentence proposition, and it's tough sledding for me. Some writers claim their favorite part of the process is editing, the getting to polish the story they've written.
That's not me. The trick now is to make two to three passes--four, if I can swing it--and get it to the publisher so they have time for all the pre-publication stuff: book and cover design, the printing and mailing of ARCs for reviewers, etc.
Next up is a true crime novel with a woman that suffered a horrendous though not unique experience with our justice system, all in the name of protecting her family. There'll be a rare short story in the NoirCon program book though I probably won't be able to attend this year (I've never gone, and I feel bad about it). And the short story I wrote for the Replacements themed anthology Waiting to be Forgotten should be out in time for Bouchercon. Editor Jay Stringer says he may try to organize some themed events so if you're going to be in New Orleans for the conference, you might want to look in on a few of these.
Let's see, what else: signing in Minneapolis on April 9th, at noon, at the legendary Once Upon a Crime bookstore, and everyone should come, and I mean everyone. Truth was dedicated to Pat Frovarp and Gary Shulze, the owners of the store until this past Friday, and absolute treasures of the crime fiction community. They're still around as the store transitions to the new owners and it should be a fun time.
There's more, you can see the events on the Schedule page at the website and as always, drop a line if you have a question or comment.
A lot of people are asking for a sequel. All my books have been standalones to this point, and while Mad Dog Barked, which I just typed "THE END" to three days ago, is also a standalone, to me it leaves even more room for a sequel. I've kind of toyed with the idea of writing a sequel that brings characters from all four books together but that might just be silly. We'll see. I started a new one the other night, but it's already taking on its own life.
Now I have to edit Mad Dog before I turn it in to Stark House Press, and that's the really scary part. You find all the typos that your fingers give you as they mis-translate the words in your mind onto the page. And there will be the usual one or two utterly incomprehensible sentences, I'm sure. Mostly, you trim, tighten, sometimes expand, clarify, but it's all a sentence by sentence proposition, and it's tough sledding for me. Some writers claim their favorite part of the process is editing, the getting to polish the story they've written.
That's not me. The trick now is to make two to three passes--four, if I can swing it--and get it to the publisher so they have time for all the pre-publication stuff: book and cover design, the printing and mailing of ARCs for reviewers, etc.
Next up is a true crime novel with a woman that suffered a horrendous though not unique experience with our justice system, all in the name of protecting her family. There'll be a rare short story in the NoirCon program book though I probably won't be able to attend this year (I've never gone, and I feel bad about it). And the short story I wrote for the Replacements themed anthology Waiting to be Forgotten should be out in time for Bouchercon. Editor Jay Stringer says he may try to organize some themed events so if you're going to be in New Orleans for the conference, you might want to look in on a few of these.
Let's see, what else: signing in Minneapolis on April 9th, at noon, at the legendary Once Upon a Crime bookstore, and everyone should come, and I mean everyone. Truth was dedicated to Pat Frovarp and Gary Shulze, the owners of the store until this past Friday, and absolute treasures of the crime fiction community. They're still around as the store transitions to the new owners and it should be a fun time.
There's more, you can see the events on the Schedule page at the website and as always, drop a line if you have a question or comment.
posted by Rick Ollerman at 5:25 PM
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