Hey friends!! I know I know, it’s been too long, but listen: I have good reasons and good news. Hear me out.
When we last left off way way too many months ago, Mutants had been pulled from Amazon because there were a lot of layout issues and one big copyright (or lack thereof) concern. It was being worked on and then I had to add content to make it big enough to be printable I guess; I don’t know how that works even though I’ve learned a lot in the last few months. I sent in what I thought was my final draft…and waited.
At the end of 2019, my publisher went ass-up and closed shop, leaving me and other authors in limbo. Not really a cool time to do it, but then again there’s never a good time for something like that I guess. I’ll forever be grateful to Sarah Fader and Eliezer Tristan Publishing for taking a chance on my poetry and other associated writings for sites like Stigma Fighters and The Good Man Project, but honestly I didn’t take the news very well and kinda hoped there’d be another solution to saving everything and helping out everyone who was in the middle of the publication process, like me. And there was not, unfortunately.
So I was on my own as far as what to do with not only Mutants, but 100, because they were eventually gonna get taken off Amazon and IngramSpark. I wasn’t ready for this at all, and it seemed very daunting to do it all myself…it took me baby steps to piece together what I was doing.
What complicated matters even more was having shoulder surgery in February…a torn rotator cuff. I’m still recovering and rehabbing it (and will be for a few more months), but I’m out of my sling for good. Needless to say, for a few weeks I didn’t wanna do a damn thing. I didn’t even wanna think about books or writing or blogs or what have you. Throw in this COVID-19 stuff, and holy hell it’s amazing how depressing everything’s become…you can’t even turn on the TV with every company under the sun blasting you with commercials about how it’s affecting them, and not you. Just one little slice of the bizarre times we’re living in these days.
But the good news is I finally started chipping away at Mutants, editing the bejeezus outta it, and figuring out self-publishing. My man Aaron J. Smith put up with me way too much trying to get the cover wrap dimensions right after the page count kept fluctuating with each little tweak and turn and I had to do to get the copy down to the right size (and throw in a font change as well; my bad!), but we got it fixed up proper and I’m hella grateful for that.
So, the best news is this: Mutants is now back up and ready for you!! In both Kindle (updated, with the new material) and in paperback!! I know…it’s about damn time!!
Here’s the deal: Everyone who pre-ordered it back in September or October or whatever, your annotated copies will be going out in the first week or two of May, depending on how long it takes me to get them and scrawl on the first bunch of pages. I haven’t forgotten about you and I’m mad sorry I haven’t kept you all up in the loop as much as I should’ve. Please forgive me; I promise, this book is worth the wait.
I’ll also be opening a new round of pre-orders very soon in my Shop here associated with this very blog. I’m gonna hafta fix a few things, and the price is gonna be a little higher because there’s more content and it’s a bigger book than originally planned, unfortunately. I don’t make the rules, y’all. KDP wants a certain amount of pages, so I try to do what works.
Sooooo….YAY!!! I’m officially a second-time author again!! Next on the docket is getting 100 back in circulation, but that’s gonna take some time I think; the manuscript has been fixed to take care of a couple layout issues I missed in editing, and I’ll need another cover for it (still mulling my options). Then getting set up on IngramSpark so I can reach libraries and the big (or pretty much only) bookstore again. From there on, who knows? This whole COVID-19 lockdown has everything in flux. My first wish is that you’re all safe and healthy. My second wish is that a tiny portion of your stimulus money goes toward purchasing my book!
Speaking of the Coronavirus, how about we end this celebration with a little quarantined playlist? Hold it now…hit it!
- REM, “You’re In The Air”
- Mudhoney, “Touch Me I’m Sick”
- Deftones, “Dai The Flu”
- Pearl Jam, “Wash”
- Anti-Pop Consortium, “Dystopian Disco Force”
- The Verve, “Drugs Don’t Work”
- Pink Floyd, “Breathe”
- Mudhoney, “Here Comes Sickness”
- Anti-Pop Consortium, “We Kill Soap Scum”
- Atmosphere, “Breathing”
- Modest Mouse, “Bury Me With It”
- Soul Coughing, “So Far I Have Not Found The Science”
Alright friends, ex-lovers, best friends with lovers, and so on and so forth…I have other things to do now while the nation figures out this whole pandemic situation. Time to get on with my bad self and start spreading the word about this new book thing I just birthed out into the universe. Peace y’all…stay well and stay safe!
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