One of the things I have learned about myself over the last few months is that I am emotionally affected by the weather. We have been dealing with record colds here (and a snowfall that never seems to end) and it had completely warped me of any creative energy I had.

I got up feeling already tired, a little depressed, and the idea of doing anything creative always felt like a struggle.

The funny thing is, since I lived in Los Angeles for four years, you would imagine that those years would have been the best time of my life. Yeah, looking back it was a fine (and it was nice being warm everyday), but I don’t think I did anything more spectacularly then. I was writing more, sure, but I was also in a the MPW program at the University of Southern California. I had to write more!

Whatever the case, we had actual sunlight a few days ago. Wonders upon wonders! I took walks outside, breathed friendly fresh air; suddenly life seemed worth writing about again.

Okay, it’s not like I was completely stagnant during the time of the icy blahs. I was still doing my two or so blogposts a week, promoting my novels; heck, I even got a book deal for my latest novel (I’ll do a catch up below). I guess I just wasn’t feeling it… which mean I wasn’t feeling me, which looks really weird now that I wrote that.

Let’s move on.

Permanent Spring Showers

The big news!

As I said in two brief posts earlier this week, I am proud to announce that my latest novel Permanent Spring Showers will be published by 5 Prince Book in October of this year.

5 Prince Books is an indie press started by author Bernadette Soehner. I really liked their goals as a house (which you can read about on their About Us page here). And it inspired me to reach out to them about my new book.

• On Thursday I sent the query.
• On Friday they asked for the complete book.
• On Monday they asked to publish it.

As a writer, a turnaround like that is just awesome for the ego. My bio and book description for the novel are already up on their site (you can find it here); and my editor already has her copy of the novel.

So far I’m really digging the environment around this publishing house. After signing the contract I received over thirty e-mails from other writers and employees there welcoming me! That is just so incredibly heartwarming. What other house does that?

For those that have not heard about my new novel, here is my current description for it:

Professor Rebecca Stanley-Wilson is having a very bad season. Her husband has just admitted to having an affair. And it was with one of her students.

Blame it on a desire for revenge (or way too much alcohol), she then has had one of her own. Unfortunately for her, her affair was with one of the great upcoming painters of his generation. The ramifications of that one torrid evening will not only be felt across her life but over the entire art world.

Sexy, funny, and very surprising, Permanent Spring Showers is the tale of one very memorable springtime and how it impacts a group of unique artists and dreamers. From the writer who is creating a new literary movement (through outright manipulation) to the hopeful Olympian with the failing marriage to the romantic wondering what he did wrong to drive his love from him, each tale walks the line between reality and fantasy. And waiting at the end of the line is a very important painting… and possibly the revolver used in the Lincoln Assassination.

Affairs, betrayal, manipulation, and glorious inspiration, the new novel by the author of A Jane Austen Daydream.

Permanent Spring Showers is scheduled for release in October.

Me Stuff

So work continues slowly on creating a book out of some of my personal blogposts. It was truly a laborious process whittling it down to less than forty, but the table of contents is locked. Now it is just a matter of reading and re-reading and re-reading again the manuscript.

The problem, for me, is that it is all about me.

I’ve never been the dude that enjoys reading about himself, probably why it is so natural for me to do posts like this for a blog. Write it, put it up, and then move on.

My original hope was to have this book out in March, but I think I will probably be aiming for more in late April. There is just too much going on right now.

Plus, I need to find a really embarrassing picture of myself as a kid for the cover. I have a few contenders. Right now I am debating between me disco dancing or in a marching band uniform.  Ah, the tough decisions of an author…

My Days as a Thief

One of the things I have been debating for a while is what I will do next as a fiction author. Well, I think I finally have that locked down as well.

A few years ago I wrote the first draft of a book that I planned to make into a young adult trilogy (I spoke about it a few times before on the site).  I had outlined the entire trilogy, wrote big chunks of all three books… and then went away and wrote Permanent Spring Showers, a much more grown up book.

Well, last Sunday, I took out the old book (the first book in the series) and began reading and, amazingly, I was pretty happy. (Honestly, I am usually my own hardest critic, I have a lot of abandoned projects.)  Over the next few months, I plan to finalize a solid draft of that first book.

The first book is entitled My Days as a Thief.

One of the main inspirations behind this novel is I wanted to write something for my kids when they are older, right about to become teenagers. Something that will help them understand life (the good and the bad), how to find one’s purpose, how to discover what is important, how to be their own person, inner strength, etc. Oh, and to do that with a lot of fun and scary fantastical adventures along the way.

Of course, what to do with it afterwards will be the tricky bit. See, everyone and their grandmother seems to be writing young adult trilogies these days.  I’ve never considered myself as “fad” writer. So finding a publisher for it might be difficult since there will be so much competition (plus, I want there to be artwork with the books).

Then there is the question of the other two novels that will be needed to complete the series. I’ve never been the kind of writer that follows a set path, I let my inspiration lead me. There is a very good chance, after writing the first book, that I might just walk away from it for a few years.

So I’ve been thinking… when I feel the book is ready I might start to share it on this site. One chapter a week. This will give me an opportunity to “field test” the book, see what others (readers and writers) think.

It will probably be a few months before I am ready to do this, but I’ve had a lot of fun sharing fiction on this site before like this so it felt natural to come to this decision. When I am ready to move forward with this, I will write up an introduction to the project on this site (and create a page for it as well). So stay tuned…

Of course, I might be acting a little giddy even considering an idea like this.

What can I say?

The sunlight can do crazy things to a person’s psyche.

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If you liked reading this post, why not check out one of my books? I’ve had four novels published in the last few years, A Jane Austen Daydream,  Maximilian Standforth and the Case of the Dangerous Dare, My Problem With Doors and Megan. You can find them via my amazon.com author page here, or as an eBook on Google eBooks here.  Thanks for reading!

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Need an editor? Dream of finishing that book but need some help? Learn about my editing services by visiting this page on my site. Or you can contact Rebecca T. Dickson and request to work with me by clicking the image below.