1. What's the release date for the next Girl in the Box/Sanctuary/Southern Watch/whatever book?
This is the most common question I get asked, bar none. And I feel bad every time I answer it, because I'm almost always vague (except one time, when someone pressed me until I gave them a release date for Omega. I was lying. I was virtually certain it would be ready long before the day I quoted them, and it was.) because I have to be.
I WILL NOT set release dates for my book. Not anymore. Not ever again, as of now. I'll give you a season, and I'll narrow it down to a month when we get closer. But the reason is simple, and it's because setting a release date means I have to set a date far enough out that I can, without question, hit it. That means if I think I can deliver a book by, say, February 15th, then I'm going to give you the release date of May 15th, just to be sure. Why? Because stuff happens. What stuff? Oh, I dunno, editors having to recuse themselves from a project at a late stage, beta readers having an explosion of real life events that keep them from working on a manuscript, the author having personal issues crop up that cause set backs, another series blowing up and causing me to realign my schedule to put out more books in that line ASAP - these are some of the things that have thwarted me in the past year.
So my new rule - I will not set specific release dates. Please don't ask. I know you want the book now. Yesterday, actually, if possible. I want you to have it now (or yesterday, actually) so in that regard, you and I feel exactly the same about it. I wish I had the Girl in the Box and the Sanctuary Series (insert future book series' here as well) already finished so you could read straight through them, believe me! I would love to have a hundred books out so as to offer you the maximum number of volumes that would interest you, but unfortunately, I don't. I'm working as fast as reasonably possible to remedy that (still trying to get ten books out this year, after all) but I am only human (so far).
So when's the next book coming out? As soon as I can get it out the door. I don't know when that'll be, but if you sign up for my newsletter here I promise you'll get an email when it's available. I only send out the newsletter when I have a new release, so you won't get spammed or have your info sold.
2. When/where/why/how did you become an author?
Technically, I guess I became an author when I published my first book in the summer of 2011. I've been writing since 2nd grade, though. As for the why and the how, I suggest you read this post here about how I started publishing my own material.
3. Do you actually make a full-time living doing this?
I do indeed. If you want some pointers on how I do that, you can see my advice to writers here.
4. How/where do you get your ideas?
I don't know. A lot of times they just seem to fall from the sky and smack me in the head. Sometimes they come to me while driving, other times when I'm sleeping (those tend to result in me scrawling on a pad I keep by my bed to sometimes hilarious results when I try to read them later - "What the hell did I write here?")
5. Where did the idea for the Girl in the Box come from?
First of all, ***SPOILER ALERT*** for those of you who haven't read Omega.
The Girl in the Box was born from a couple of ideas I had. I couldn't really talk about this until Omega was out, but since it's out, hey, fair game. One of the ideas was a person so isolated and disconnected from the world around them that when I first came up with the concept the box was only metaphorical (I had the idea she'd have been locked in her house for years, restrained - the practical punishment solution of the box came later). The title came from Summer Glau's character River in Firefly; when we first meet her she's frozen in a box, and the original note I had on the series was Sienna telling about how she saw it on TV (in the hour of TV per day she was allowed, trapped in her house) and describing it as a metaphor for how she lived. The idea of touch being an impediment to forming a relationship came right after that, but I waffled a bit on how I should execute it. The idea of fitting it into the realm of mythology and the concept of a succubus started to interest me, and the thought of mythological beings inhabiting our modern world in a way that ran closer to Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a sleeker, more realistic feel. (Interesting bit of trivia - I actually learned what a succubus was after Giles mentions them in the very first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. True story. I had to look it up in the dictionary, because I'm so old Wikipedia wasn't around at the time.)
So I had a girl, basically, with a problem - she was unable to touch or connect with people - but I needed a setting. I think I was watching Veronica Mars (GREAT SHOW) when the idea came to me of a character who is part of a powerful organization whose work she believes in, but is always somehow at loggerheads with them. People in groups can be cruel without being violent; and you can see in the first five books (Alone, Untouched and Family in particular) how Sienna gets shunned by the people around her, adding another layer of disconnect to her relationship with people. I had an idea long ago about an organization called the Directorate, who would train on the campus for secret missions. I thought this would be the perfect place for Sienna to be, that she could join them while still struggling to belong, that she could develop a relationship with them that she naively, as an inexperienced person, would think to be one based on mutual trust, when in reality...well...you who have read Omega know...
There's a little more to it than just this, but here's the basics. I can't really talk about the rest of it until Book 10 is done, because to go any farther would reveal some of the twists in the tale. I had a pretty good concept of how the story would flow, from book 1 to book 10, before I even started out. There have been a few things that have changed along the way, but I think you'll be able to look back at the end of book 10 and say..."Whoa. He really DID plan it out the whole way..." At least I hope you'll be able to see it.
6. I've heard you talk about people who get to beta read your stories before anyone else. How can I be one of those people?
Short answer? You probably can't. It's nothing personal, but especially on Girl in the Box books I already have too many beta readers. I like to get opinions, but when I have to spend more time collating those opinions together than I do actually rewriting the book, it means I've got too many cooks in the kitchen with me.
7. Can I beta read for your Sanctuary books, then?
No. But I do thank you, if you've actually read them.
8. Why don't you update your webpage more often?
Oh, that. This actually isn't a frequently asked question, but I'll tell you anyway. The reason my webpage doesn't get updated very often is because I'm the one who has to update it, and I don't really like coding HTML. I can do it, but it takes a while, so I generally only update when I have a new release. I could do it more often, but that'd take away from my time to write, so...I don't.
This is the most common question I get asked, bar none. And I feel bad every time I answer it, because I'm almost always vague (except one time, when someone pressed me until I gave them a release date for Omega. I was lying. I was virtually certain it would be ready long before the day I quoted them, and it was.) because I have to be.
I WILL NOT set release dates for my book. Not anymore. Not ever again, as of now. I'll give you a season, and I'll narrow it down to a month when we get closer. But the reason is simple, and it's because setting a release date means I have to set a date far enough out that I can, without question, hit it. That means if I think I can deliver a book by, say, February 15th, then I'm going to give you the release date of May 15th, just to be sure. Why? Because stuff happens. What stuff? Oh, I dunno, editors having to recuse themselves from a project at a late stage, beta readers having an explosion of real life events that keep them from working on a manuscript, the author having personal issues crop up that cause set backs, another series blowing up and causing me to realign my schedule to put out more books in that line ASAP - these are some of the things that have thwarted me in the past year.
So my new rule - I will not set specific release dates. Please don't ask. I know you want the book now. Yesterday, actually, if possible. I want you to have it now (or yesterday, actually) so in that regard, you and I feel exactly the same about it. I wish I had the Girl in the Box and the Sanctuary Series (insert future book series' here as well) already finished so you could read straight through them, believe me! I would love to have a hundred books out so as to offer you the maximum number of volumes that would interest you, but unfortunately, I don't. I'm working as fast as reasonably possible to remedy that (still trying to get ten books out this year, after all) but I am only human (so far).
So when's the next book coming out? As soon as I can get it out the door. I don't know when that'll be, but if you sign up for my newsletter here I promise you'll get an email when it's available. I only send out the newsletter when I have a new release, so you won't get spammed or have your info sold.
2. When/where/why/how did you become an author?
Technically, I guess I became an author when I published my first book in the summer of 2011. I've been writing since 2nd grade, though. As for the why and the how, I suggest you read this post here about how I started publishing my own material.
3. Do you actually make a full-time living doing this?
I do indeed. If you want some pointers on how I do that, you can see my advice to writers here.
4. How/where do you get your ideas?
I don't know. A lot of times they just seem to fall from the sky and smack me in the head. Sometimes they come to me while driving, other times when I'm sleeping (those tend to result in me scrawling on a pad I keep by my bed to sometimes hilarious results when I try to read them later - "What the hell did I write here?")
5. Where did the idea for the Girl in the Box come from?
First of all, ***SPOILER ALERT*** for those of you who haven't read Omega.
The Girl in the Box was born from a couple of ideas I had. I couldn't really talk about this until Omega was out, but since it's out, hey, fair game. One of the ideas was a person so isolated and disconnected from the world around them that when I first came up with the concept the box was only metaphorical (I had the idea she'd have been locked in her house for years, restrained - the practical punishment solution of the box came later). The title came from Summer Glau's character River in Firefly; when we first meet her she's frozen in a box, and the original note I had on the series was Sienna telling about how she saw it on TV (in the hour of TV per day she was allowed, trapped in her house) and describing it as a metaphor for how she lived. The idea of touch being an impediment to forming a relationship came right after that, but I waffled a bit on how I should execute it. The idea of fitting it into the realm of mythology and the concept of a succubus started to interest me, and the thought of mythological beings inhabiting our modern world in a way that ran closer to Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a sleeker, more realistic feel. (Interesting bit of trivia - I actually learned what a succubus was after Giles mentions them in the very first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. True story. I had to look it up in the dictionary, because I'm so old Wikipedia wasn't around at the time.)
So I had a girl, basically, with a problem - she was unable to touch or connect with people - but I needed a setting. I think I was watching Veronica Mars (GREAT SHOW) when the idea came to me of a character who is part of a powerful organization whose work she believes in, but is always somehow at loggerheads with them. People in groups can be cruel without being violent; and you can see in the first five books (Alone, Untouched and Family in particular) how Sienna gets shunned by the people around her, adding another layer of disconnect to her relationship with people. I had an idea long ago about an organization called the Directorate, who would train on the campus for secret missions. I thought this would be the perfect place for Sienna to be, that she could join them while still struggling to belong, that she could develop a relationship with them that she naively, as an inexperienced person, would think to be one based on mutual trust, when in reality...well...you who have read Omega know...
There's a little more to it than just this, but here's the basics. I can't really talk about the rest of it until Book 10 is done, because to go any farther would reveal some of the twists in the tale. I had a pretty good concept of how the story would flow, from book 1 to book 10, before I even started out. There have been a few things that have changed along the way, but I think you'll be able to look back at the end of book 10 and say..."Whoa. He really DID plan it out the whole way..." At least I hope you'll be able to see it.
6. I've heard you talk about people who get to beta read your stories before anyone else. How can I be one of those people?
Short answer? You probably can't. It's nothing personal, but especially on Girl in the Box books I already have too many beta readers. I like to get opinions, but when I have to spend more time collating those opinions together than I do actually rewriting the book, it means I've got too many cooks in the kitchen with me.
7. Can I beta read for your Sanctuary books, then?
No. But I do thank you, if you've actually read them.
8. Why don't you update your webpage more often?
Oh, that. This actually isn't a frequently asked question, but I'll tell you anyway. The reason my webpage doesn't get updated very often is because I'm the one who has to update it, and I don't really like coding HTML. I can do it, but it takes a while, so I generally only update when I have a new release. I could do it more often, but that'd take away from my time to write, so...I don't.