I AM THRILLED TO ANNOUNCE

I’ve been pounding the old keyboard telling stories now for more than twenty years. In fact, my first book, a non-fiction work titled America’s Original GI Town, Park Forest, Illinois, was published in 2000 (and I just got a residual check for $26 bucks this spring – it’s still alive!), with Johns Hopkins University Press. Since then, I’ve written and published over 22 novels in just about every category and genre. I’ve been privileged to be under contract with Thomas & Mercer for two books and self-published or indie-published (your choice) twenty others. I’m calling this my apprenticeship. You learn a lot writing more than two million words, like what to leave in, what to take out; whatever passive voice is/was (still confused); that, like an atom, you can split an infinitive, and to be careful with those things that dangle. I also learned the importance of editors, all sorts, from story to line to proof. There is/are editors for everything. So, when a good friend suggested that I follow up with a new publisher who might be interested in a new series I was writing (a modern western), I jumped at the chance.

Drum roll here . . . .

I am thrilled and proud to announce that I have just signed on with Wolfpack Publishing. I want to thank Mike Bray, Jake Bray, and James Reasoner, for this opportunity to work with them and their team on both re-releasing my old catalog of fourteen novels as well as offering new titles to my readers. For me it’s a three for one deal. My young adult novel, The Cherry Pickers, will be re-released through their young adult focus, Wise Wolf Books, thirteen other mysteries and thrillers will be by Rough Edges Press, and my new series of modern westerns through Wolfpack Publishing. I am looking forward to a long and mutually prosperous partnership.

 

It is so easy to become discouraged in this business and art of writing, the hardest part is pounding out the words, the second and closest to the hardest is marketing. You are required to sit and work, there’s no other alternative – and there is no one to make you do it. Discipline, patience, clarity, imagination, vision, and creativity become skills that are honed and then polished. If writing excites you, then you are half the way there. If you are in it for the money, it is a steep climb. There’s a lot of nicked knuckles and skinned knees it the process. And don’t get me started with marketing – six years of blog posts are there for you to read through. A good friend and now (after many fits and starts for him), an incredibly successful author, told me once, “It’s also a lot of luck, plain luck.” Right place at the right time, and maybe Wolfpack Publishing is that moment for me.

I will let you know about release dates, covers, schedules, even promotions as they come along. This is all new to me, so we will make this journey together.

 

All the best . . . . . until next time.