A happy story, or an end-of-the-world story? Hmmm...

So I’m a week or so away from re-starting work on Inventing Vazquez, and beginning what I hope will be the last round of edits before launching an all-out search for a literary agent. I hope to be done within two or three months, after which I’ll start on my new writing project in earnest. What is that project? Great question…

The idea was to start work on my next post-apocalyptic novel, The Mourning Syndrome. But alas, after reading Sister Chicas and grappling with the question of where I want my writing career to go, here I am, contemplating a completely different direction. More specifically, I’m giving very serious thought to forgoing The Mourning Syndrome and starting on…the follow-up to Inventing Vazquez. Not only because I think there are more stories to be told with that group of characters, but because of the timing. See, Inventing Vazquez is a comedic satire about Latino/a representations in Hollywood. But in light of all the things I’ve seen and read and heard over the course of this electoral year, the idea surfaced: why not do a political satire next? And so, I’ve laid out some ideas on a sequel to Inventing Vazquez, which would address the issue of Latino/as and Asian-Americans within the political landscape.

Like I said, the timing might be the deciding factor here. I figure, by the time I finish writing the sequel and getting it published, it might be around the next electoral year, and so it’d be relevant.

Which leads me back to my dilemma about what I want to write. For the longest time, I envisioned myself as a sci-fi/horror writer, which explains Solstice ^_^ Sci-fi and horror are what made me want to write in the first place. But after having written Inventing Vazquez, and realizing I wanted to write more stuff like it, I’m facing the prospects of having to pick one or the other because I don’t have time to pursue both. Dang it, I need more hours in my day… Regardless, I’ll keep writing. No sense in not writing anything just because I can’t decide what to write next.

Speaking of writing, I’m about to create a new way for readers to purchase copies of Solstice directly from my publishing house. One of the things I’ve heard from numerous people is that they didn’t feel comfortable purchasing the book directly from my site because, well, it’s not exactly amazon.com ^_^ So I’m going to put my book on sale at ebay soon, to give you that added bit of consumer protection. I’m not sure yet if I’ll use my existing ebay account with the 100% positive feedback, or create a new one for the TMP name alone. Regardless, I’ll post it on this blog and on my site. What’s more, because I’m really hoping to generate more sales, I’m going to start selling Solstice at a reduced price. So if you’re contemplating buying a copy of Solstice, stay tuned, because I should have this up and running by this weekend. Why buy direct? Well, you’d get an autographed copy, free shipping, and the assurance that you’re helping out the little guy ^__^

Because I don’t already have enough things going on in my life (you know, working full-time, editing a novel, starting a new one, writing for Quiet Earth, promoting Solstice, playing/killing my drum set, getting ready to record a death metal album with my friend James, and, oh, planning on cleaning my gutters), it looks like I’m going to start writing for Urban Molecule. By the looks of it, I’ll have a monthly column on the fifth of each month, so hopefully you’ll stop by and read. I’m really excited about this, because, needless to say, I’ve never had a monthly column ^__^ What am I going to write about? Um………..yes.

Oh, one final note. I wanted to say congratulations to the five winners of the free Solstice copies in the contest I recently held. Congratulations to Amir, Robert, Oliver, Graham, and Jessica on their winning responses. Thank you for taking part in my first ever contest! Hopefully there will be another one at a later date.

Thanks for reading!