Category: Random Mutterings

The default category.

Fall 2019 Update: Now Writing Full Time and Other News

I don’t want to bury the lead, so I’ll start off with the biggest news: As of November 4th, I’m now a full-time writer.

After nearly 20 years at the university, it finally seemed like the right time. I’ve been self-employed before — I owned a bookstore for a few years in my late twenties — so being self-employed is not completely new to me, but this is the first time I’ve been a full-time writer. My commute is now thirteen feet, bedroom to office. My coworkers are very quiet . . . except when they’re cleaning their paws.  In the picture above, you can see one of them, Paisley, sitting in my office recliner. Er, I mean, on my office recliner.

What does it mean for my readers? Well, the books should come a lot faster now. I won’t be writing any faster, mind you, or at least I don’t intend to. I’m just going to be spending a lot more hours at it rather than getting up at the crack of way-too-early to get in my pages before heading off to the day job. I have a good sense of what kind of pace is sustainable for me long term, but we’ll see how it goes. So far, so good. I’ve been hitting my quota, getting in my daily words on another book. I know if I get that right, I can figure out the rest. 

And what is that book? Well, I’m working on a spin off character from the Garrison Gage series right now — someone who appeared in a couple books and deserves her own series. (That’s enough of a clue. You’ll have to wait until I’m done for more.) After that, I’d like to jump right back to Gage for the seventh book in that series. And then? Well, I have a lot of ideas.

Speaking of ideas, what about the comic? Now that I don’t have that pesky day job, will be I be publishing Run of the House more frequently? Well, we’ll see. For now, I continue to publish the cartoon strip every Wednesday over at http://www.runofthehouse.net. I’m going to reassess my plans with it down the road a bit, after I’ve settled into my new routines, but I fully intend to keep it going. It appeals to a different part of my creative makeup, one I’d let go dormant for far too long.

Oh, in other news, Bury the Dead in Driftwood, the sixth Garrison Gage book, is now available in audio. You can find it on Audible and on iTunes, narrated by the wonderful Steven Roy Grimsley, who has narrated all of the Garrison Gage and Myron Vale books. If you like listening to audio books, as I do, please check it out.

It’s a gray and drizzly November day here in Oregon. In other words, perfect writing weather.  Time to get back to it.

Recalibrating the Cartoon Strip (Changing to a Once-a-Week Schedule, Pausing Patreon . . . for Now)

It feels a bit strange writing this post, just a week after posting about reaching my 50th comic strip with Run of the House, but, alas, reality has intervened as it sometimes does. While I love producing the strip, and plan to continue doing it, I now have a much better idea of how much time it takes — which means how much time it’s also taking from other things. Unfortunately, while I thought I could maintain the balance of writing/university work/family/cartooning without anything really suffering, it turns out there really are only 24 hours in a day, and something had to give. Lately, that turned out to be the writing, as much as I tried to deny it to myself. My weekly word counts don’t lie, since I’ve always been a big believer in tracking them so I’m honest with myself about my productivity, and they’re down considerably in the last few months. 

And since I have two kids going to college before long, and the writing is (ahem) quite a bit more profitable (and equally enjoyable), I’ve got to continue to prioritize it.  I knew when I was starting to use my morning writing time for the cartoon strip that I was going to have to make some hard decisions . . . So I’m dropping back to a once-a-week, Wednesday publishing schedule for Run of the House, starting next week (August 28).

But I’m not quitting! If anything, I’m more motivated than ever to get better as an artist and cartoonist, just as I’m equally motivated to get better as a writer. I’ve learned a ton about cartooning the last few months, both the craft and the business side of things, and I have some ideas on how to evolve the strip in the months ahead and how to keep getting better overall. This really is primarily about time. Well, yes, paying college tuition, too, but primarily time.

Finally, I’ve paused the Patreon donations. It doesn’t feel right to take your contributions when I’ve cut my publication schedule. I was tempted to just close my account for now, which I may still do, but then I saw that Patreon has a “pause” alternative that preserves some options for me. They’ve changed their membership plans since I started, so if I completely close it I’m forced onto the new plan. 

So, to recap: Going forward, you’ll be able to read all the weekly strips over at http://wwwRunofthehouse.net, and you won’t be charged by Patreon if you were one of my early backers. Thanks again for your support!

Summer 2019 Update: New Gage Book Coming, Cartooning Stuff, and Other Sundry News

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Good news for my Garrison Gage fans! Bury the Dead in Driftwood, the sixth book featuring the curmudgeonly private investigator living in Barnacle Bluffs, Oregon, is now with the copy editor and should be available for purchase in the next few weeks. Be sure to sign up for my author newsletter if you want to be among the first to know when the novel is actually out. That’s the cover up there (it still might get tweaked a little, though we’re feeling pretty good about it at this point), and the book description will be coming soon.

It was great to revisit my old friend Gage and the extended cast that inhabits his moody Oregon coastal town, and I’m hoping my readers will feel the same. I appreciate everyone’s patience! Two years was a long time to go between Garrison Gage mysteries, but, well, what can I say? While I know there are plenty of you who’d prefer that I just write Gage books and nothing else, I’m just not wired that way. I also had a big book that went sideways on me and needed to be put aside for a while. It happens. What I can say, however, is that I’ve been making a lot of little changes, both to my habits and my mental approach, that should add up to a lot more books and stories coming from me in the months and years ahead. We’ll see. I’m having a lot of fun and that’s the main thing.  More than ever, the real joy I get from my creative work is the pursuit of excellence. Money and fans are certainly nice and appreciated (oh boy are they!), but the less central they are to my motivation the happier and more productive I am as an artist.

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Speaking of fun, I’m also having a blast with the Run of the House comic strip. (Three recent ones are pictured above.) I completed my 50th strip the other day. While I’m posting most of them in various social media channels (Facebook, Tumbler, Twitter, etc.), the best way to  see them is at www.runofthehosue.net, posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. While the strip is free, if you want to show your appreciation, a $1/month at Patreon is certainly appreciated.  By becoming a patron, you’ll also get lots of extras. Every little bit helps.

Other news? We had a fun trip to Florence, Oregon a few weeks back, staying in a lake house and having a blast. Kayaking, ping pong, hanging out in the hot tub, even a couple dune buggy rides — it was a great retreat. Overall, weather has been quite pleasant this summer, both in the Willamette Valley and on the Oregon coast, and I feel almost guilty saying so, since I know that’s not the case elsewhere. Oh, and if you’re somebody who wants to lose 41d7cBwU1pLweight, or simply get healthier overall, I highly recommend reading Jason’s Fung’s book The Obesity Code. My weight had been creeping up over the years — nothing egregious, but like most people, it was just trending in the wrong direction — and I’d finally decided I’d had enough and I needed to cast a wider net on my understanding of the issue. Of all the books I’ve read on diet and nutrition, Fung’s book finally filled in the missing pieces for me. My biggest takeaway from it? That when and how often we eat is just as important as what and how much. It makes complete sense from an evolutionary point of view, too. Read the book for more information. It’s heavy on the evidence side, which I love, but you can certainly skim some of the more data-intense parts of the book and still come away with a much-improved understanding of human physiology. A lot of it is simply reinforcement of what we already know (cutting down sugar, refined carbohydrates, and eating more whole foods, plus moderate exercise, is a recipe for better health), but if you read this book you will understand why 98% of all diets fail — and what you can do to prevent that failure from happening to you.

Port Orford, Oregon – July 2018

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That’s a picture from our recent week-long stay in Port Orford, Oregon. We rented a beautiful house nestled in the hills near Port Orford Heads State Park, and just forty-seven steps down to what was practically our own private beach. Heidi took this photo when we walked down the grass-covered steps that first night at dusk. It was such a magical moment that I actually said, “It’s like something out of a fairy tale.”  The southern Oregon coast is so far from the major areas of Oregon that it’s not nearly as touristy, which isn’t a bad thing at all in my book. We had fun hiking the South Slough Estuary, visiting the Cape Blanco Lighthouse, and just hanging out as a family, as we often do when we make our frequent forays to the coast.

Alas, no publishing news to report. It’s been a lot longer than I’d prefer between books, but sometimes it can’t helped. I do appreciate your emails, even the hectoring ones, because a hectoring reader is still better than no reader at all, I think. Yet in the end I just have to write my daily words and trust in the process. While I truly appreciate every reader I have, I can’t do it any other way. The books come when they come. Sometimes they come out fine the first time, sometimes they go sideways and need a bit more work, but I’ve learned the hard way (oh boy, have I) to just keep the focus on the work.

If you want a good book on the subject, check out Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel. It’s one of my favorites. When Herrigel himself was learning archery from a Zen Master in Japan, he was scolded for fixating too much on the goal itself:

“Put the thought of hitting right out of your mind! You can be a Master even if every shot does not hit. The hits on the target is only an outward proof and confirmation of your purposelessness at its highest, of your egolessness, your self-abandonment, or whatever you like to call this state. There are different grades of mastery, and only when you have made the last grade will you be sure of not missing the goal.”