MOVING ON

Those of you who may have been checking this blog since last fall will know it's been a while since I updated it. I apologize for leaving you in the dark for so long. It's not that I've gotten lazy; as a matter of fact, the opposite is true--I've actually been quite busy.

I've completed The Sunshine of Better Fortune, my sequel to Nor the Battle to the Strong; the manuscript is now with my publisher and I'm waiting to hear whether he plans to accept it. These two novels have consumed the better part of the last ten years of my life, so of course I'm anxious to hear his verdict. I continue to await word from the another publisher, whose editors have been considering Season of Terror, my nonfiction account of the Espinosa serial killers in Civil War-era Colorado, for twenty-one months now--a process which has taught me much about the difference between the publishing of fiction and of nonfiction. The latter requires endless peer reviewing, scrupulous editing to root out politically incorrect words and phrases, and of course a careful checking to insure sound scholarship. But I'm hopeful for a good outcome at the end of the frustratingly protracted process.

Nearly simultaneously I also wrote a novel about the Espinosas, a 650-page tome which a Colorado friend will soon be reading for cultural and geographical accuracy and which I hope will also see print someday.

Having done so much authorial heavy lifting, I've been looking around for something less exhaustive but still productive and, at the urging of my wife Ruth and good friend Britt Kaufmann, have decided to try e-publishing. As some of you will know, I've written a number of novels set in the early West--I don't like to call call them Westerns in the genre sense because I've tried to give them the literary heft of serious writing. I actually posted one on this blog some time ago, and some of you may have read that one. But I've been unsuccessful in peddling them to non-genre publishers and, as so many other writers are doing these days, have decided to try e-publishing.

We are in the process of formatting the text and hope soon to launch the e-book. Britt--who has an amazing artistic talent as well as a fine gift for poetry--has even designed an exciting cover, which I'll be sharing with you here when the time is right. Be assured I'll keep you posted on all aspects of our progress.

So stay tuned for fresh developments. And by the way, Happy New Year!