31 Days Of Flash Fiction - Day 15
/About halfway through the month, hope everyone's still enjoying the stories!
About halfway through the month, hope everyone's still enjoying the stories!
Every Monday needs a little pick-me-up, right?
Hope this does it for you!
Happy Sunday!
Thank you to everyone who purchased a copy of Lineage yesterday, I really appreciate it! It's still priced at $.99 so if you're so inclined you can still get in on the deal here.
Hope you enjoy today's story!
Happy Friday everyone!
Before you read today's flash fiction I just wanted to mention that Lineage, my first novel, is on sale for $.99 for a limited time. If you have the chance to check it out that would be great!
Now, on to today's piece...
It's my birthday today and this is my gift to you.
Enjoy!
Happy Sunday, everyone!
Hope you enjoy this one!
Happy Saturday everyone!
Here's a little creep to ease you into the weekend.
Hope you're not washing clothes tonight. ;-)
Okay, I'm cheating a little here. This isn't a brand new story.
I wrote it last year for a flash fiction challenge over at Chuck Wendig's blog, and I won! Anyways, here we go.
Here we go again. Hope you guys enjoy this one as much as yesterday's.
I love October.
I love Halloween.
I love fall, the leaves turning and then gradually falling, one by one off the trees. It makes me want to create.
So this is what I'm going to do: Every day of October (barring a catastrophe) I'll be posting a flash fiction piece on my blog. The theme will obviously be horror. I'm going to try to keep the stories as close to a hundred words as possible.
Here we go.
I came home to write full-time one year ago today.
I still can't really believe I'm doing what I dreamed of since I was a teenager, it's a little too surreal even after a year of doing it.
I decided to sit down and write this after my wife reminded me of the anniversary that is today (glad she was reminding me of this anniversary and not OUR anniversary) and I thought I would stop and look back at what this year has meant to me, what I've accomplished, and what I hope to do in the future. So here we go.
For six years I worked as a personal trainer at a local, 24-hour gym and for five of them, managed it.
I loved it.
I helped people reach their fitness goals, gained friendships with my two bosses that will last a lifetime, and provided for my family.
I was also away from home for 12 to 14 hours every day of the work week. I would look in on my sleeping children in the morning before I left, and at times would kiss them goodnight as they slept when I came home.
I did not love this.
But at the time it was the best thing for our family. My wife stayed home with our children since we decided it was the best for them and financially for us. Each day I would leave them early and come home late. It was a routine that kept me away from my loved ones, but also provided for them. This is in no way special since millions do this everyday, but I hated it.
So at night I wrote.
When I would arrive home I would pound out a thousand words and then flop into bed, ready to do it again the next day.
And the next day.
And the next day.
A year ago my wife was able to start working from home. We had already made sacrifices for her to stay home with the kids and this new added income meant a decision for us. One that thrilled me to no end. Not only would I be able to spend much more time with my family, I could begin to write full-time.
My first book, Midnight Paths, came out in October of 2011 and my novel Lineage, was published on September 17th, 2012. Twelve days later I came home for good.
It took me six months writing in the evenings while working full-time to finish Lineage. Since publishing that first novel I've written three short stories and four more novels in the space of a year- Singularity, EverFall, The River Is Dark, and the latest that will be published in October. For me this pace has been perfect. I try to write 2000 words almost every day and have a great editor and cover artist who are wonderful to work with.
Now not to mislead you, I'm not making millions with my writing, but I'm very pleased with how my books have done over the last year. Two years ago I would be lucky to clear enough each month for a nice dinner and now my writing pays the mortgage, and car payment, along with various other expenses, not to mention my publishing costs.
The year has had its shares of ups and downs. One day your books are selling well, gaining momentum, and gathering shining reviews. The next there will be a horrific, static silence as readers pass your work over for someone else's. I've come to realize these highs and lows are normal, although it doesn't stop me from dancing or moping when they come along. But I'm a writer, I'm not always rational.
If I could pick out two examples of the best and worst times they would have to be in February when Singularity hit the top 100 paid Kindle list in the UK and hung there for a day, and this summer when nearly all of my books slipped down to negligible numbers for weeks at a time.
Some have asked me how I've accomplished becoming full-time. My answer is always this: keep working and adapting, and never give up. There is nothing more to success than refusing to quit.
In the coming year I'm excited to focus more on the marketing of my work while also producing another four novels.
All in all, it's been a great ride, and even if sales numbers slip sometimes or the occasional negative review comes along, I remember that I've already achieved a goal that some never get to experience.
I'm doing what I love, every day.
Fall is my favorite time of year and always breeds creativity for me, for some reason the Autumnal tones of yellow and red leaves kick start my writing gears and new things come to me. Here's a little flash fiction I jotted down the other night, hope everyone digs it!
Tomorrow's the first day of school for my kids.
They're not super-excited. A little, but not super.
I thought about how this time of year makes me feel and needed to put down my thoughts.
Hey! My blog! I'll put down my thoughts!
So here we go.
Today we did lots of fun stuff together as a family, got home in time for me to cook dinner. My wife cleaned out their backpacks, washed them, hung them up to dry. My daughter labeled her pencils for a half hour so no one would take them tomorrow.
As a writer I get to stay home and do what I love to do everyday, but I must admit, when there's no one else in the house, I do get more done. I'm alone with my thoughts. It's quiet. I can think clearly with my ideas making the loudest noises I hear. Tomorrow I'm going to sit down and pound out a couple thousand words on my WIP. Then I'm going to go workout, and then pick my kids up from their respective schools.
And as much as I'll relish the time to work, I'll be truly looking forward to getting them back home and listen to them tell me about their first day. I'm going to make them snacks and cook them a special dinner and help them do their homework. The quintessential feeling is hard to express but it's something along the lines of appreciating what you have when it's not there.
I do love my time alone to write.
But the house gets too quiet sometimes.
And when my family gathers together in the evening is when things are the best.
That's it, a little gushing about my loved ones. Thought I'd share. Hope everyone else who's sending their children off to school tomorrow has a great day.
And a great evening when they come back home again.
So I've been busy writing my fingers off and editing my brains out and it's finally time to reveal my latest novel which will be out August 6th.
The River Is Dark is my first foray into thriller territory and I'm really excited about it. Below is the synopsis.
Ex-homicide detective Liam Dempsey is waiting to die.
His career, the only thing he ever knew how to do well, is over. The single solace each day brings is the ever-growing contemplation of suicide.
But when his estranged brother and sister-in-law are brutally murdered in their bucolic town set on the banks of the Mississippi River, he is drawn into an investigation surrounding a string of killings unlike anything he has ever seen before. The murderer is ruthless, cunning, and without conscience.
Soon Liam learns that the river is dark.
And so are its secrets.
So that's it for now. Like I said,
The River Is Dark
comes out August 6th and I'd be really pleased if everyone took a peek at it when it goes live. Thanks for stopping by!
Really simple post today folks. This one's for people wondering how to start and end chapters in the projects they're writing. So here we go...
The beginning of a chapter should be a fishhook through the eyes.
It should yank the readers attention to the words with clarity and concern and bit of unease. Something should be happening at the beginning of a chapter, something you want to read more about. Here's an example from my short story The Line Unseen:
So, my Twitter buddy, Steven Montano, writes some really excellent vampire, military fiction called The Blood Skies series, and you should really check it out, you won't be sorry. But Steven's a busy guy and he's actually started a new series of books called The Skullborn Trilogy, which is more epic fantasy. I wanted to give him a shout out since his cover reveal for the first book in the series is today. So without further ado, here it is:
City of Scars (Book One of The Skullborn Trilogy)
By Steven Montano
Release Date
: June 28
th
, 2013
Cover Art
by
Barry Currey
It’s been three decades since the Blood Queen led her legions on a brutal campaign of conquest and destruction, and the Empires are still struggling to rebuild. Now, in the distant aftermath of the war, the real battle is about to begin.
Haunted by the crimes of his past, fallen knight Azander Dane ekes out a mercenary existence as he drifts from one city to the next. His latest job is to hunt down Ijanna Taivorkan, a powerful outlaw witch desperately seeking a way to escape her destiny.
Dane and Ijanna find themselves in Ebonmark, the City of Scars, where deadly crime guilds and shadowy agents of the White Dragon Empire prepare for a brutal confrontation. Pursued by apocalypse cults, mad alchemists, exiled giants and werewolf gangs, Dane and Ijanna soon learn a deadly lesson – in Ebonmark, only the cruelest and most cunning can survive.
City of Scars is the first volume of The Skullborn Trilogy, an all new epic fantasy adventure from the author of the Blood Skies series.
Check out bloodskies.com for more!
Official Webpage of author Joe Hart.
Blog Archives