The Agony and the Ecstasty

There is little worse than being a creative spirit. Nor is there anything better. (Yes, it's like A Tale of Two Cities.) The process of creating is both invigorating, soul sucking, uplifting and devastating. In general...it's amazing.

Then comes the presentation. For writers, it's not just about writing the book, no. You also have to worry about the whole publishing process. Just because your book has been professionally edited it doesn't mean that it's mistake free. You can have three, five, twenty people go through it and there will still be mistakes. (Cue frowny face.) Then there's after your baby (yes, that's what it is) is published. There's this thing called marketing. Some people (creative people) live for this. I do not. It's really hard for me to sell myself. If I read my work, I think it's brilliant, but then I read it again and hate almost every part of it. There is no such thing as perspective.

Anyhow, it's been almost a month since I released my latest book and I've watched the sales, the free downloads and the reviews. The word is in, at least in a small degree. (Remember, I'm not good at selling myself.)  I've had 5 reviews and they are all 5 stars...out of 5. I know. This makes me feel good. Okay, so I've only sold 12 copies, but when I was giving it away free 260 copies were downloaded. This is also good.

This is the glory and the pain. I remember CBC Weekend Sports used to have a reel and the voice over that said "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" and that is my experience with the writing process.

Thanks for the support, those of you that bought or downloaded and for those of you who couldn't thanks for the moral support.

Just as a teaser, I'm almost 23,000 words in to the sequel.

Gratuitous Promotion of my second book - "Last Farmer"

It's been two years in the making and I'm almost ready to launch my next book through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. Like all things creative, I'm excited and terrified, but I hope that you'll like the book. I'm adding the book cover and the "back cover blurb". 

Please, feel free to comment,  all input is helpful for me.

"In the dusty ruins of once verdant Earth, humanity is forced to live in bio-domes that protect them from the harsh environment of the Burn Zone. In the government controlled domes, life is highly regimented and Dax, a high school history teacher, is tired of his tedious existence, but he has a plan to fix all that.

Unfortunately for Dax, an orphan named Jake has different ideas. The boy wants Dax to abandon his dream of a cushy professorship to look for something that must surely be a fable. The government insists that the only thing outside the comfort of the domes is death, but the two will have to cross the void in an attempt to fulfill the boy’s quest.

Can Dax give up his dreams, defy his government and survive the Burn Zone, just on the whim of his student, Jake? And if he does, can he protect them both from the unknown dangers of the outside world?"


So here's the deal: I'm on an exclusive contract with Kindle for 90 days. They do provide a free app for PCs, Macs and mobile devices (including tablets) so you can read their books without owning a Kindle reader. I'm not sure how, or if, I can get the book into other formats once the 90 days is up. (Well, I know I can PDF it, but that's about it.)


The book is available on most Amazon country specific websites. The link, on the book cover, above is for the Canadian site, here's the US link: LAST FARMER


I'm the only one promoting this book, so if you can share this blog I'd be grateful! Thanks for supporting me and my endeavours, I really hope you enjoy the book.